


Fix Me

by alievans007



Category: Jax Teller - Fandom, Sons of Anarchy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 08:25:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 40
Words: 59,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16971150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alievans007/pseuds/alievans007
Summary: When Jackson Teller is shanked in prison, he meets a doctor.  Maybe she can heal his lungs...and his heart.





	1. Chapter 1

This is a story I wrote a few years ago and published on Fanfic.net. I will not reveal my writer name on that site because the other stories I wrote are too embarrassing to share but I assure you this is my own original work. I’ve done a little clean up work on this and added some things to it. Hope you enjoy it! 

Rating: MA  
Triggers: Violence (stabbing)

Day 26

Jax stood in a long line of other inmates waiting to use the collect call phones. Not even a month on the inside and he was already going stir crazy. The routine was mind-numbing; especially for a man who never did the same thing day in and day out. Jax was use to going where he wanted when he wanted. The last time he could remember having any sort of normal routine was when he was in high school and even then when it got to be too much he just skipped classes, finally just dropping out so he could dedicate more time to the Sons of Anarchy. 

Jax was lost in his revere when he felt a violent shove from behind. Just as his brain was registering that he was under attack, the metal from a phone cord bit into his throat. His brain went into overdrive readying him to fight back. Then, from out of nowhere, a man approached him.

In a heavily accented voice, the man said "Nothing personal. It's just business." Then there was a searing pain as the man sunk a shank into his chest three times.

The pain was overwhelming and blood starting seeping from the wounds. Jax fell against the wall and slipped to the floor. He could feel the blood leaving his body, a hot pool forming under him. He was fighting to stay alert. He knew if he let himself lose consciousness that he would be dead. He focused his mind on his son, Abel, and his mother, Gemma. They were both waiting for him to return home in under 14 months.

"Inmate down! Inmate down!" Jax heard a guard yelling. It sounded far away, like it was in another part of the prison. It would be just his luck that these assholes had hit another inmate in another part of the prison to distract the guards from the attack on him.

Jax felt hands move him onto a gurney. 

"Talk to me, Teller," a guard demanded. He knew the voice. It was one of the regular guards on his pod. This guard was one of the good ones; he cared about the inmates and actually took the time to talk to him and get to know him a little bit.

All Jax could manage in response was a moan. Jax could feel the gurney moving, he could see the light change behind his eyelids. His chest felt like it was on fire. It hurt with every breath. He felt the guards secure the straps around his wrists, binding him to the gurney.

"Jackson, you need to talk to me." The guard said again.

"Monty," Jax whispered letting the guard know that he was aware of what was going on.

"Give me the story," a female voice commanded.

"Jackson Teller, 32, stabbed three times in the left chest," the guard, Monty, explained to the female voice. "Lost a lot of blood on the pod before we got him here."

Jax's eyes were forced open and a light was shined into them. He focused on the woman hovering above him. She had blonde hair and deep blue eyes. 

"Am I dead? Is this heaven?"

"Honey, if this is heaven, I want a redo," The woman laughed. "I'm Doctor Samson, the attending physician today." She quickly set to work examining his wounds. "You're very lucky, Mr. Teller."

"Don't I know it." Jax whispered.

"Three more inches to the right and we wouldn't be having this conversation," she said seriously.   
"Whoever did this missed your lungs and your heart, not for a lack of trying. You'll be in the medical ward for a couple of weeks. We'll want to make sure that these wounds don't get infected. Is there anybody you want me to call?"

"His step-father is on the same pod as him. I can let Clay know what happened." Monty said.

"I'm going to get a nurse in here to help me stitch you up. If all goes well, you'll be walking out of here as good as new." She said.

Jax nodded, not able to form words at that moment. He just wanted to sleep until he could leave this hell hole and resume his life outside of the cement walls that he currently lived in. He got an hour outside daily. It was torture having to spend so much time inside. He was a California man born and bred. He spent the majority of his time outside, in the sun.

"You want me to go get the step-dad?" Monty asked the doctor.

"I'm sure he's heard all about the attack already. Just give him an update, let him know that Mr. Teller's in the medical ward and is stable." Doctor Samson said. "He can have visitors in a couple of days depending on how things go."

The guard nodded and opened the door that led out into a hall and into the rest of the prison. 

"Deke's down at the end of the hall if you need him but you're safe with this one." Monty said hooking his thumb at Jax.

"Don't they all say that?" The doctor said, shooting Monty a smile.

Jax grimaced as he felt a poke. "You don't have to worry about me, darlin," he said. His voice was gravely and sounded foreign to his ears.

"All criminals say that." She smiled at him. "I don't trust anybody in here except Monty and Karina."

"What about me?" A red headed nurse asked as she entered the room.

"I trust you. Help me stitch him up." The doctor said.

"Yes, ma'am." Karina smiled. "Heard you took the graveyard shift tonight at St. Thomas. Are you fucking crazy?"

"You work at St. Thomas?" Jax asked as the doctor positioned his arm to give her full access to his wounds.

"I've worked there for three months," the doctor said. "Some of us decided to volunteer our services here."

"That's because some of us have to escape our homes as much as possible," the nurse said. 

Jax caught the look the doctor shot her. He wondered what it was about. What could the doctor have to escape from?

"I haven't seen you around Charming." Jax said trying to stay focused on the two women who were stitching him up instead of the pain in his chest.

"I'm usually at the hospital or here," the doctor said simply. "The pain meds should kick in soon if you're uncomfortable."

Jax wanted to smirk at the way she changed the subject but he was starting to feel exhausted. He listened with half an ear as the two women talked as they worked on sewing his cuts closed. He heard the doctor ask the nurse to get some blood to give him. He was starting to feel cold. As if the doctor could read his mind, she pulled a blanket over him.

"Once we replace some of the blood you lost, you should feel better." She smiled reassuringly at him. "Of course for the next couple of days, you're going to feel pretty shitty."

"Of course." Jax said before exhaustion washed over him.

Day 27

"How was your shift last night, Corrie?" Karina asked Dr. Samson early the next morning.

"Pretty uneventful," Jax heard the doctor from yesterday answer. He kept from smiling as the name flowed over him. Her name was Corrie. He kind of liked that. "How are our patients this morning?"

"So far so good. Nothing new came in overnight." Karina answered.

Corrie snorted. "Really? Would have thought, at least, that Delaney would make an appearance." Jax perked up at Otto's last name. "He's about due to harass us for a few days."

"I think he's scared to come back." Karina laughed as she flipped through some charts.

"I wasn't that hard on him." Corrie replied laughing back at Karina.

"You told him if that if he came back for fighting again or sent anybody else in here, you were going to send him for a psych eval and get him on meds to make him a walking zombie." Karina answered.

"I saw him nine times in 30 days." Corrie said. "It was time somebody said something. How's Teller doing?" Corrie refused to look in Karina's eyes. Karina, though 10 years older than Corrie, had become one of Corrie's best friends. Karina could see right through Corrie like nobody else and Corrie did not want Karina picking up on the fact that Corrie had not been able to stop thinking about the blonde haired inmate that ended up in the medical ward the previous day.

"They didn't report anything to me when I got here except that it was a quiet night." Karina shrugged.

"Good." Corrie nodded.

"Hey," Monty said coming into the room.

"Mornin, doll face." Corrie smiled at him.  
"Gonna bring Morrow in to see Teller in a few minutes. Dan was on their pod last night and said Morrow didn't sleep at all." Monty said.

"Sounds good." Corrie said.

They got their morning routine out of the way, making sure meds were dispensed to the five inmates currently in the med ward. Monty brought a gray haired man into the ward. Corrie noticed that the man had intense blue eyes. She knew him vaguely from having checked his hands when he first entered the prison. He looked sad and worried.

"Jesus, Jax, who did this to you?" He asked his step-son.

Jax shot a pointed look at the doctor and Clay nodded understanding what Jax was trying to convey. They could discuss the who of the attack when Jax was back in his regular cell. Right now wasn't the time or the place to talk. There were too many innocent people that could hear some things that didn't need to be heard outside of the Club.

"How're you feeling?" Clay asked.

"Like I got shanked." Jax said sighing.

Clay smiled. "See you haven't lost your sense of humor." Clay turned to the doctor and was struck by her beauty. Clay looked back at Jax. It would only be a matter of time before Jax was taken with the doctor, Clay could tell. "How long he in for?" Clay asked the doctor.

"At least ten days. I don't want him in gen pop until the stitches come out," the doctor replied. Corrie walked to the other side of the room to work on some charts.

"I don't care who this was." Clay said quietly to Jax so that nobody would overhear. "We are going to destroy them once we're out of this shit hole."

Jax nodded. He knew that the Russians would pay once Clay got word that this was over the gun running shit that went down before they came inside. The Russians were pissed that the Sons had taken out their Irish pipeline.

"Morrow!" Monty yelled. "Time's up."

"Get better." Clay said to Jax. "Take good care of him, Doc."

"Always do." Corrie smiled at him.

Shit, Clay thought, Jax is going to be head over heels for that one before his ten days are up.

~~~~~~~

"How is he?" Tig asked eagerly when Clay returned.

"He's okay." Clay said. "Monty said that it was close but Jax should be back in gen pop in ten days. Don't worry, boys," Clay smirked, "he's in good hands."

"What's that mean?" Juice asked.

"Means he's got a very pretty doctor looking after him." Clay smiled.

"That's all he needs is another doctor to break him even more." Juice said.

"Nah, he needs somebody to remind him what's good in life." Bobby said. "Since Tara broke his heart a second time, Jax has been just surviving. He needs a woman to help get him sane again."

"Well, we'll see what happens." Clay said. "But just by looking at her, she's a lot different than Tara. Blonde hair, beautiful eyes, nice rack. A doctor, so she's smart. I have a feeling Jax will be himself by the time he's returned to us."

"Who did this?" Tig asked.

"He couldn't say right then but when we find out, we take care of it." Clay said.


	2. Chapter 2

Rating: MA

Triggers:

Day 28

Jax was trying to keep himself from going stir-crazy. At least in his cell he could move around, do some pushups or write to Abel; something. In the infirmary all he could do was lie on the cot and think. He thought about his brother Thomas and how they'd almost lost him at the age of six. He thought about Abel and how he'd almost lost his son before Abel even really had a chance to be born. He thought about his mother and everything she'd gone through as Queen of SAMCRO. He thought about Tara, their past and current relationship. About how badly it had hurt when she'd run for the second time.

Jax shook his head to keep his thoughts at bay. He didn't want to travel down that road of betrayal once more. At least now, at this point in his life, he had an answer to the question that had been in the back of his mind for so long: Was Tara his soul mate? Sadly, that answer was no. In fact, Jackson Teller was starting to believe that he didn't have a soul mate at all.

"How are you feeling this morning?" Corrie asked him when she noticed him shake his head. She'd been quietly working on charts.

"It still hurts to breathe a little." He said.

"Do you feel like you're getting enough air in your lungs?" She asked him.

"Yeah," he nodded.

She put her stethoscope to his chest. "Deep breath, please….and out. Another one in and hold it...and out. It doesn't sound like there's any damage to your lung." She said moving away to write in his chart. "I'm going to order a chest X-ray just to be sure."

"And if there's damage?" Jax asked not sure he wanted to know the answer.

"Then we'll have to go in and repair it. There could be a small nick in your lung that's causing air to escape slowly." She blew out a frustrated breath. "I should have made them give you a chest x-ray the second you came in. Fucking administration thinks they know better than doctors."

"Not your fault." He smirked at her.

"No, but I hate it all the same." She replied.

"Where would I have surgery?" He asked.  
"Local hospital. You'd stay there a couple of days then come back here to recover." She smiled.  
"How long does recovery take?" Jax asked.

"A couple of weeks." She replied.

"Great." Jax huffed, grimacing at the pain in his chest.

"Oh yeah, lots of fun." She rolled her eyes. "But you get better visiting hours."  
~~~~~~~  
An hour and a half later, Corrie was pacing the hallway of Stockton Legacy Hospital. She stopped in her tracks when she noticed a dark haired woman carrying a young blonde haired boy coming towards her. What had stopped Corrie was all of the people behind the woman with the child. They were all wearing black leather vests. It was a sight to behold. The group stopped to talk to whoever was at the nurse’s station. Corrie felt her nerves jump a mile when the nurse pointed directly at her.

"You wanna tell me what the hell is going on?" The dark haired woman demanded of Corrie.

"Miss Gemma," Monty said smiling at the woman. "Good to see you outside of the prison. And how's Mister Abel?" Monty tickled the toddler who laughed in response.

"Good to see you, too, Monty. Now I want some information on my son." Gemma turned her cold stare back at Corrie.

"Jackson's in surgery." Corrie said bluntly. "A chest x-ray revealed a slight nick in his left lung that they are repairing."

"Why wasn't this caught sooner?" a different woman with dark hair and green eyes asked. She was fidgeting with the necklace she wore.

"I ordered a chest x-ray for Mr. Teller the day that he was stabbed. Administration didn't feel it was necessary." Corrie shrugged.

"When can I see him?" Gemma asked.

"I can allow one person in at a time after he's awake." Corrie explained. "He'll be here for a day or two before being transferred back to the prison."

"How is one visitor at a time going to work, sweetheart?" Gemma asked sarcastically. "I'm not going to send Jax's two year old son in alone."

"I can take him," the young dark haired woman offered.  
Gemma snorted derisively. "Over my dead body." Corrie could see that there was no love lost between these two women.

Corrie sighed, torn. The rules were that when a prisoner was transferred to a hospital for whatever reason, there was to be only one visitor at a time. However, she couldn't very well send a two year old boy into a hospital room where his dad was hooked up to all sorts of wires.  
"You can take him in." Corrie said to Gemma. Corrie pretended not to see the look Monty shot her. It wasn't like this amazingly adorable two year old boy was going to break his dad out of prison. "Three visitors today. We'll see how he feels tomorrow."

"Yeah, okay," Gemma nodded. Gemma wasn't about to challenge this doctor. When Gemma had given Jax a mild verbal beat down over cutting his hair, Jax had made it very clear to his mother that he wasn't about to challenge prison rules. He wanted to serve his time as quietly as possible and get home to Abel. Gemma couldn't argue with that. It was killing her that her husband and eldest son were in prison. Luckily, Thomas had managed to keep his nose clean or she didn't know what she'd do. Her only beef with her youngest son was his insistence that Tara be kept in the loop. After what Tara had done to Jax, Gemma really didn't care if she never saw that bitch's face again.  
~~~~~~~

Jax felt like he was floating on a cloud. He could hear noises but all he could make out was Abel's laugh. That's impossible, he told himself, you're in prison. He let his eyes flutter open and was greeted with the sight of his son sitting on the bed next to him and Gemma in a chair on his right.

"How are you feeling, baby?" Gemma asked.

"Tired," Jax replied rubbing a hand over his face. "Hey, little man," Jax tickled Abel; his son's laughter easing the fatigue a little.

"Doctor said you did great." Gemma said running her hand over her son's buzz cut.

"Good for me." Jax replied focusing on his son instead of the pain in his mom's eyes.

"I'm going to see Clay tomorrow. Anything you want me to tell him?"

Jax knew exactly what his mother was asking. Did he want her to tell Clay who'd done this? 

"Russians." Jax replied.

"I'll let him know." Gemma said kissing her son on the forehead.

"I'm sorry but he needs to rest." Corrie said softly as she entered the room.  
"Can I see him tomorrow?" Gemma asked. She hated that she sounded weak but this whole situation was becoming almost too much for her.

"Yeah, of course," Corrie smiled.

"Say bye to Daddy," Gemma told Abel.

"Bye Daddy," Abel said throwing his little arms around Jax's neck. "Lub you."

"Love you too, buddy." Jax smiled. He didn't want Abel to leave. He just wanted to get up and go home, forget this whole horrible mess.

"He's cute," Corrie said when Abel and Gemma had left. She sat in the chair Gemma had vacated.

"He gets it from his dad." Jax said. Corrie giggled a little at his response. "You got any kids?" He wasn't sure why he'd asked. He was curious about the doctor who'd been taking care of him these past couple of days but he had to remind himself that he didn't care about her on a personal level.

"No," Corrie shook her head. She relaxed back into the chair a little.

"Mind if I ask why not?" Jax was about to punch himself in the throat to get himself to shut up.

Corrie shrugged. "Too busy with school, haven't found the right guy, now I'm too busy with work. Take your pick."

Jax felt like he was in a dream as he reached out and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. The look of sadness that had passed across her eyes when she'd listed the reasons she didn't have kids made him feel for her.

"You should get some rest," Corrie said softly. She couldn't let on but she had been extremely frightened when his fingers had lightly skimmed her face as he pushed the hair behind her ears. It was almost as if his fingers had shocked her. She'd never felt anything quite like it before. She put a tamp down on her thoughts. He was a prisoner that she was taking care of. Nothing more.

Jax settled back onto his pillow and let himself drift off. His mind was filled with dreams that he'd had every night he'd been on the inside. Abel in the park, Abel coloring, Abel watching tv and chattering away, Abel eating breakfast. Only this time, instead of Abel laughing and talking to Jax, Abel was laughing and talking to Corrie.


	3. Chapter 3

Character note: I imagine Tommy looking like Garrett Hedlund thanks to Tumblr.

 

Day 29

It was eight in the morning. Corrie was exhausted as she walked towards Jax's room. She'd worked the overnight shift at St. Thomas.The brunette that had showed up with Jax's mother had looked familiar to Corrie but she couldn't figure it out until she started her shift at St. Thomas; Corrie had seen the woman at St. Thomas before. She was a doctor there in the prenatal unit. The question she didn't get answered was why Gemma Morrow hated the brunette so much or what the brunette’s name was. 

Corrie stopped outside the door of Jax's room to say good morning to Monty. She just gave him a small smile for a greeting instead when she heard voices coming from Jax's slightly open door.

"Tommy," Jax said, "you know that I hate talking about this."

"Jax, it made you crazy for ten years. Then, everything was good again for eight months. I can't just hate Tara because you say I should. You won't tell me why you two broke up before you got put inside. What happened?" Tommy said, the pleading evident in his voice.

"When I got back from Belfast, I took Abel to St. Thomas to see her. She wasn't there. Her boss asked me how Tara was doing after her 'procedure.' She said abortions can be hard physically and emotionally. When I got back to my house, Tara had packed up and left for Chicago." Jax explained.

"Jesus," Tommy replied. "I had no idea."

"Mom had to slap some sense into me in Ireland. She told me Tara was pregnant. I was so excited to be a father again." Jax said sadly.

"Man, I'm sorry." Tommy said.

"Well, it is what it is. I'm just not cut out for happily ever after." Jax let out a mirthless laugh.

Tommy knew better than to argue with his older brother when he was in this kind of mood. It would do no good to point out that Jax was still young and there were plenty of women who wanted to be with him.

Corrie used the silence as an excuse to knock on the door. She opened the door the rest of the way and entered the room. "How are you feeling today?"

"Fabulous, thank you for asking. How are you feeling?" Tommy answered.

Corrie let out a laugh. Jax couldn't help but think it was a beautiful sound. "I'm glad. How's my patient?" She replied.

"I'm still here." Jax said holding his hands out like "What else?"

"Well, you won't be here for much longer." Corrie said. "I spoke to your doctor before I came in. You're doing remarkably well and you'll be going back to the infirmary today or tomorrow."

"Oh, good." Jax rolled his eyes but kept a smile on his face.

"I know, not the greatest news but at least you get better visiting hours there." She said. She couldn't quite place her feelings at the moment. She felt pain for the man in the hospital bed after hearing about what his ex-girlfriend had done to him. But she also knew that she was getting too personally attached to him and that wasn't a good thing. She had to take a step back. He was a prisoner. He was off limits.

"Yeah," Jax nodded.

"Keep him as long as you want, Doc," Tommy said, his blue eyes sparkling. He flashed a smile that mimicked Jax's patented panty dropping grin but it didn't quite have the same effect as Jax's. "The kid and I are having fun trashing his house."

"Nice," Jax laughed. "Just be sure to clean up before Mom drops by. She'll skin your ass if you mess it up after she did all that work to it after Wendy moved out."

"No worries," Tommy said. Corrie stood there watching the brothers interact. They were close, that was apparent. It made Corrie a little sad that she wasn't that close with her siblings.

~~~~~~~

Day 30

"Welcome back, Mr. Teller." Karina said when she started her rounds in the prison's infirmary.

"Thanks, K." Jax said. He was under strict orders from the petite nurse to call her either Karina or K under threat of painful punishment. "Missed you."

"Liar," she grinned at him. "How are you feeling?"

"Better every day." Jax replied. "I'll be ready for rec yard scrapping in no time."  
"Yeah," Karina laughed and rolled her eyes, "don't let Corrie hear you say that. She'll read you the riot act."

"I'm sure." Jax said. He wanted to ask Karina when Corrie would be around. He hadn't seen her since she visited with him and Tommy the morning before at the hospital. He had grown used to seeing her every day, even though it had only been a couple of days. 

I guess you get used to a lot of little things in prison, Jax thought. Jax was feeling better and looked forward to getting back into his cell. Laying around all day, getting lost in thought wasn't making time go any faster.

"Morning, Teller," Monty's deep voice boomed as the prison guard walked in. He had a big smile on his face.

"Morning," Jax replied.

"Samson coming in today?" Monty asked Karina.

Karina shook her head, her face serious. Monty's face scrunched up in confusion.

"The usual bullshit." Karina replied to unasked question. "Can't wait to see what the bastard did to her this time."

Questions immediately started bouncing around Jax's skull. Who was the bastard? What had that bastard done to Corrie before? Did Corrie miss work a lot because of what this person did to her? Jax tried to clamp down on the overwhelming urge he had to storm out of the doors and go in search of the young doctor so he could demand answers. He couldn't just leave when he wanted. He was in prison. Besides, he tried telling himself, it was none of his business. He was an inmate. She was just a doctor.

A beautiful doctor any way, Jax thought to himself.


	4. Chapter 4

Day 32

Jax was busy writing in his journal, waiting for visiting hours when she walked in. She didn't look any worse for the wear. Jax quirked an eyebrow at her. "Heard you got hurt or some shit like that."

Corrie chuckled. "People shouldn't gossip about things they know nothing about," she raised her voice to Karina could hear her. The nurse replied by flipping the doctor the bird. Corrie chuckled again. "I had a little bit of a cold. I didn't want to risk getting you sick. It could lead to pneumonia and a whole other slew of problems for you."

"Well, I appreciate that." Jax grinned. He couldn't help grinning like a fool. He hadn't seen Corrie in two days and the doctor that had filled in for her had been downright dreadful. He didn't make small talk with Jax, didn't really seem to care. Also, visiting hours were slowing approaching and Opie was bringing Abel to see his dad which cheered up Jax considerably. 

"You should." She gave him a wink before turning to look through the patient charts so she could catch up on what she'd missed while gone.

Jax had spent the past two days trying to convince himself that he didn't miss her in between visits with Gemma, Thomas, Opie, and Abel. It had taken everything Jax had in him to not react when Thomas made a comment about Corrie being gorgeous and saying he needed to fake an injury that would put him in the St. Thomas ER so that he could get closer to the doctor.

"You're feeling okay?" Corrie asked.

"Yeah, I feel fine." Jax shrugged. "Why?"

"There's nothing in your chart for those two days I was gone. You could have spiked a fever and I never would know!" She huffed.

"You can't find good help these days." Jax grinned.

"Ain't that the truth." Corrie sighed.  
~~~~~~~

"Hey, man, how are things?" Opie asked Jax.

"They're going." Jax shrugged as he made faces at Abel.

"Shit," Opie sighed, "I don't know how I'm going to get through the next thirteen months without you."

"You'll manage." Jax smirked. "You're getting practice for when you get to be president."

"Never gonna happen." Opie grinned back at his best-friend.

"Your president right now, aren't ya?" Jax teased.

"Because you and Clay got your dumb asses locked up." Opie shot back.

"Opie said a bad word." Abel pointed out.

"That's a quarter for the swear jar, huh, buddy?" Jax asked his son, running a hand over Abel's blonde hair. Abel nodded.

"Means I gotta get it out of the safe in Chapel." Opie replied. Jax quirked an eyebrow at him. 

"Kozik was going to cash it in and hire a hooker so we locked it up."

"Good idea. That money is going to put this little man through college." Jax laughed.

"No, I motorcycle like Daddy." Abel pouted.

"Yeah, your grandma's going to love that." Opie replied.  
~~~~~~~

"Shit," Corrie said quietly. A few minutes later she said it again, "shit."

"Problem?" Jax asked.

"Urgh!" Corrie said frustrated. "I keep messing up and I can't get past this level." She pulled her stool up next to Jax's bed to show him.

"What are you playing?" Jax asked grinning.

"You have to match three of the same kind of candy and meet the goal set for the level." Corrie explained.

"Slow day?" Jax asked.

"I only have you to see today. So, I decided to play a little since you don't need my immediate attention." Corrie smirked.

A few hours later Monty poked his head into the medical ward to check on his friend.

"No, you're going to screw it up!" Corrie laughed.

"No, you are! Just let me-" Jax said trying to pull Corrie's phone closer to him.

"Stop!" Corrie giggled.

"What happened?" Jax asked when her phone beeped.

"We died." Corrie replied.

"Damn, we were close that time too." Jax said.

Corrie restarted the game, letting herself relax and enjoy playing a game with Jax.


	5. Chapter 5

Day 33

"Shit," Corrie huffed as she looked at the readout from the thermometer.

"Bad news?" Jax asked.

"Yeah." Corrie nodded. "Karina, I'm going to need IV antibiotics and a nebulizer."

"Right away." Karina said heading off to gather supplies.

"You gonna tell me why you need all that shit?" Jax asked.

"You have a fever." Corrie shook her head.

"What does that mean?" Jax asked.

"Means you're getting sick. I'm hoping I can ward off everything worse than the sniffles." Corrie   
said writing stuff down in his chart.

"And if you can't?"

"Worst case scenario, you end up back at the hospital on a ventilator because of pneumonia." She answered.

"Great." Jax huffed.

"I'm so sorry." She said sadly.

"It's not your fault." Jax said.

"Yeah, it is. I'm still getting over my cold. I should have stayed away longer." Corrie said, feeling completely helpless.

"I'm glad you didn't." Instinctively, Jax reached out and grabbed her hand. "That other doctor was driving me crazy."

"But you're getting sick. You could end up in the hospital again because of me." Corrie huffed.

"I wouldn't worry too much about that. Being in the hospital isn't the worst thing that has happened to me." Jax said.

"If that was supposed to cheer me up, it doesn't really help." She grumbled.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I don't feel sick." Jax grinned.

"We'll see what you say in a couple of hours." Corrie replied.

~~~~~~~

"Hey, Abel." Corrie smiled at the two year old.

"Hi!" He replied happily. "I see my dad."

"Where's Jax?" Thomas asked. He kept his concern under wraps so as not to scare Abel.

"He's still in the infirmary." Corrie replied. "He has a little bit of a fever."

"Daddy sick?" Abel asked taking the doctor's hand in his.

"A little bit." Corrie knelt down so she was eye to eye with him. "But, you can go see him. He just has to stay in bed."

"I has to stay in bed when I sick too." Abel said.

"That's the best place to be." Corrie smiled. She stood up and started leading Abel back to see his dad, Thomas trailing behind them.

"Daddy!" Abel cried and ran to Jax's bedside.

"Hey, little man." Jax smiled sleepily.

"How is he, really?" Thomas asked quietly.

"Really, he's okay." Corrie answered, watching Abel and Jax talk. "He has a fever. We're monitoring him closely. We've already started IV antibiotics. He says his throat is getting a little scratchy."

"If this thing turns bad?" Thomas asked.

"Worst case scenario, just like I told him, is that he has to go back to the hospital and be put on a ventilator. I am doing everything in my power to keep that from happening." Corrie assured him.

"Thanks." Thomas said giving her a small smile before going to join his brother and his nephew.

"Is your uncle behaving for you?" Jax asked his son.  
"No." Abel said seriously, shaking his head causing Jax to laugh which caused him to cough.

"You okay?" Thomas asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Jax said. "Everything's fine."

"You better pray to God that it is. If you end up sick, Ma's going to come up here and start throwing around orders. It's going to be no good for anybody." Thomas said. "She'll probably call the warden and start complaining about your care."

"Who says she hasn't already?" Corrie asked quirking an eyebrow at Thomas.

"You're kidding!" Jax looked horrified.

"Yes, I am." Corrie laughed.

"That's not funny," Thomas said. "You don't know our mother."

~~~~~~~

"You doin’ okay?" Corrie asked later that night before her shift ended.

"I'm fine." Jax said. He'd had an extra long visit with Abel and Thomas. Corrie had even played games on her phone with Abel when the brothers needed to discuss some business. "Thanks for letting them stay longer."

"There's no time restrictions." Corrie said. "Abel is incredibly smart for a kid his age."

"He's seen a lot of shit for a kid his age." Jax sighed. "And now he gets to see his old man not only in prison but in the medical ward."

"What do you tell him, when he asks about...this? If you don't mind me asking." She said.

"No, I don't mind. When he asks why I can't come home, the answer is because I made a bad decision." Jax answered. "Once he gets older, I can explain the reasons behind why I'm in prison."

"He gonna grow up and be part of your gang?" Corrie asked smiling.

Jax chuckled. "We're not a gang. We're a motorcycle club. We just do a little gun running to make money. Don't listen to everything people say about the Sons."

"Yeah, one of the administrators at St. Thomas isn't very fond of you." Corrie said.  
"Margaret Murphy." Jax rolled his eyes. "She's never liked me."

"She thinks you're bad for her special snowflake," Corrie replied.

"Her special snowflake?" Jax quirked an eyebrow.

"Tara." Corrie said softly, remembering what she'd overheard Jax telling Thomas about Dr. Knowles.

"Oh," Jax said frowning. "Yeah, she always had big ideas for Tara."

"Well..." Corrie started, feeling a little weird since she wasn't supposed to know that Jax and Tara were a couple at one point in time. "You should probably get some rest."

"Yeah," Jax said letting himself relax into his pillows. He was a little surprised when Corrie bent down and kissed him on the forehead. "My turn to ask a question."

"Okay," Corrie said.

"Who's the bastard?" Jax asked.

"The who?" Corrie asked confused.

"The nurse and guard said something about a bastard hurting you." Jax said.

"Oh," Corrie nodded. "Yeah, my dad has a tendency to drink a little and get a little angry. It's no big deal." Corrie shrugged.

"You live with him?" Jax asked.

"No, I go visit my younger brother and sometimes my dad's drunk." Corrie said. "It's not as bad as they make it sound, I promise."

Jax laid in bed after she left. Thoughts were spinning through his head about Corrie and what her life must have been like with a drunk, abusive dad. He couldn't help see the parallels between her and Tara. Corrie was young, beautiful, a doctor, and had grown up with an alcoholic abusive father from the sounds of it. Tara was young, beautiful, a doctor, had grown up with an alcoholic, abusive father, and had shattered Jax's heart twice. Jax shook his head, wishing he had a cigarette. He couldn't deny that he liked Corrie. He was starting to like her more every day.

~~~~~~~

"Dr. Samson," a voice said from behind her in the ER. Corrie whirled around.

"Thomas," Corrie said surprised.

"Long time no see." Thomas grinned.

"Yeah," Corrie smiled. "What brings you to our wonderful ER?"

"The kid's got a fever." Thomas shrugged.

"Did you give him some Children's Tylenol or anything like that?" Corrie asked.

"Um...," Thomas scratched the back of his head as a blush crept up on his cheeks. "I don't really know what I'm doing."

"Your mom-" Corrie started.

"Busy," Thomas cut her off.

"Well, Tara should-" Corrie started again.

"Not be around Abel." Thomas stated. "It would confuse him."

"Right," Corrie nodded. "I'll check him out."

"Thanks, Doc." Thomas smiled.

"If you want, I can give you my number-" Corrie said.

"No," Thomas said forcefully. "Look, I appreciate you taking care of my brother and Abel but that's all this is, okay? I can't get involved-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Corrie said. "I'm flattered...I think but I was just going to give you my number so you could call me in case something like this happens again. Then, you don't have to bring Abel all the way in here."

"Oh," Thomas nodded. "Yeah, that would be great."

She wrote her number down on a piece of paper and handed it to him. "Now, let's go check out your nephew."

Corrie opened the door to find Abel laughing with Karina. "Heard you're not feeling very well."

"No," Abel said still smiling.

"That's no fun." Corrie said. "How about I give you some stuff to make you feel better?"

"Otay," Abel said.

Corrie gave Abel a dose of Children's Tylenol. "That should help."

"Thanks!" Abel said. "I like you."

"I like you too." Corrie smiled.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was given this idea by somebody who was on a vent. Just bare with me. :) There is a purpose to this story line.

Day 34

"I am so sorry, Jax. This is all my fault." Corrie sighed, trying to fight back tears. She'd been called into Stockton around 3 am because Jax had deteriorated so quickly that the other doctor felt that he needed to go onto a ventilator.

"Nah, darlin," he said with a gravelly voice. "You said yourself that this was probably going to happen."

"That doesn't make me feel any better." She said. She was sitting on the edge of his hospital bed. "This is so horrible."

"You're starting to make me worried." Jax said. He didn't want other people to know he was scared but this was really starting to freak him out.

"You'll be fine." Corrie promised. "They're going to sedate you so they can put the tube in. It'll stay in for a day or two before they take it out and see if you get enough air on your own."

"You gonna be there?" Jax asked. He didn't want to face this without her by his side.

"Yeah," Corrie nodded putting her hand over his. "I'm going to be right here until you're ready to go back to the medical ward again."

"Good." He smiled. "I don't know if I could make it without you."

"Right. By the time you're ready to have the tube out, you're going to be sick of me. You'll have a dry-erase board to write questions and stuff down on." Corrie squeezed his hand.

"What about Abel? Is he going to be able to come see me?" Jax asked.

"Hopefully. He's quite the little chatterbox. Apparently when your brother goes to bed at 10, your son has a habit of taking his phone and calling people. I talked to him for about an hour before he fell asleep." She smiled.

"Thomas has your phone number?" Jax tried not to sound upset but he didn't want his brother getting close to Corrie.

"I gave it to him tonight when he brought Abel in to the ER. Abel had a simple fever and just needed some Children's Tylenol. Your mom was busy and your brother didn't know what else to do. I told him it would be easier for him to call me to go see Abel when he's not feeling well instead of hauling him to the ER." Corrie explained. She didn't know why she felt the need to make it clear to Jax that it was only for Abel's benefit that Thomas had her phone number. She didn't want Jax to think she was interested in Thomas and it worried her that it concerned her so much what Jax thought.

"Is he okay?" Jax asked.

"Oh yeah, he's fine. He didn't seem to be feeling sick at all. He denied anything felt icky so that's good. I told Thomas to watch him and if he doesn't have a fever for 24 hours he can come visit you." Corrie said. A nurse came in with a syringe. Jax looked at Corrie and she could see the fear there for a brief second before the big badass biker exterior was back in place. "It'll be okay, I promise." She whispered to him.

~~~~~~~

Day 35

Jax cracked an eye open. Panic momentarily set in when he felt the tube in his mouth, going down his throat. He went to pull it out but strong hands stilled his motions.

"Don't," Corrie said groggily. "You have to keep it in. You're okay. Remember, you're at the hospital?"

Jax nodded his head as she came into focus. He calmed at the feel of her hands on his and the sound of her voice. She brushed some non-existent hair off his forehead. She had been asleep in the chair next to his bedside when his movements had woken her up. Like she'd promised, there was a small whiteboard next to his bed so he could communicate but before he could reach for it, her voice quieted him again.

"Looks like Dr. Lawson may have jumped the gun a little bit. Your cough was horrible and it was clear that you weren't getting enough air into your lungs. But there isn't any fluid build up in your lungs, which is good news. He should have treated you with a nebulizer before jumping to a ventilator. The nebulizer would have opened up the tubes going to your lungs and helped you breath a little easier. So, you're going to stay on IV antibiotics to help ward off anything trying to take hold in your system. You'll be on the vent for a little bit. But it won't be in for too long and we'll get you back to the prison." She explained. Jax nodded. "I talked to your brother. He's trying to keep your mom from storming the hospital and demanding my head on a platter." Jax rolled his eyes at this news. Of course Gemma would want a head on a platter. "Also, Thomas said that Abel hasn't had a fever at all today so he should be able to visit you soon." Jax pointed at the tube and put his hands up in question. "I'll tell him that we're trying to keep you from getting sick so you have a tube in your mouth helping you breathe so you won't be able to talk. It's going to be scary for him at first but hopefully I can make it as not scary as possible." Jax nodded his head in thanks.

Corrie sat down and sighed, putting her face in her hands. Jax reached out for one and intertwined his fingers with hers. He arched his eyebrows at her. "I know. I know. It's not my fault."

Jax had never known anybody that could read him so well before. He couldn't say anything to her but she could see what he wanted to say on his face. "I still can't help but feel like it is, though. Here you are again at the hospital, helpless because I gave you a cold." Jax squeezed her hand. "You should get some more sleep. You have three hours before visiting time. I have a feeling your mom's going to be in here like gangbusters when it's time."

Jax nodded and closed his eyes. He felt so tired but he wanted to listen to Corrie talk some more. Corrie knew he needed a lot of sleep because it was just natural to want to pull the vent tube out when a patient was awake.

~~~~~~~

"What the hell is going on?" Gemma demanded. Monty had poked his head in the door of Jax's room and said that Gemma wanted to talk to her.

"Jax has a little cold." Corrie said.

"A little cold does not mean he gets put on a ventilator!" Tara said angrily.

"The doctor on the floor last night overreacted. We had everything at the prison to treat him. Unfortunately, there's not a lot I can do now; the orders were put in before I was able to get here." Corrie said.

"This is bullshit!" Tara yelled. "I want to see his chart."

"I want to see my son." Gemma said glaring at Tara.

"Look, I can ask Jax if it's okay with him if you look at his charts." Corrie said.

"Abel and I are going to see Jax." Gemma said.

Corrie knelt down in front of Abel. "Hey, Champ." She smiled at him.

"Hi!" He said happily.

"Your daddy's not feeling so good." Corrie said. "It's going to be kind of scary to see him, okay? He can't talk right now. He has something in his mouth to help him feel better."

"Why?" Abel asked.  
"Because we don't want him to get too sick. He can write things down on a board but he just won't be able to talk to you." Corrie tried to explain the best she could.

"Will you come with me?" Abel asked.

"Of course I will." Corrie said standing up. Abel held his arms out for her to pick him up. She hoisted up against her hip and was about to turn towards Jax's room when Dr. Lawson walked up.

"How's the prisoner?" He asked.

"Mr. Teller is doing okay." Corrie replied a little tersely. "His fever has come down and there is no fluid in his lungs."

"I'll be checking on him in a few minutes." Dr. Lawson said.

"No," Gemma said.

"And you are?" Dr. Lawson asked.

"I'm the prisoner's mother." Gemma huffed.

"I'll check on him, Gemma." Tara offered.

"No," Gemma repeated. "I don't want anybody touching my son except her." Gemma pointed at Corrie. With that the three of them turned to walk to Jax's room.

Jax was a little surprised to see Corrie with Abel in her arms. "Hi, Daddy!" Abel said. Jax waved and smiled at his son. Corrie put Abel down on Jax's bed. The toddler cuddled up next to his father and laid down. "You get better." Abel said before kissing Jax on the cheek. Jax nodded and gave his son a thumbs up.

Corrie noticed that Gemma was having a hard time keeping her emotions in check. She gently lead Gemma just outside of Jax's door.

"He's going to be fine." Corrie said.

Gemma grabbed Corrie's elbows. "I lost his father. I almost lost Thomas. I almost lost him. And now, I might lose him again."

"You are not going to lose him." Corrie said forcefully, staring into Gemma's eyes. "I have worked too hard on him to let him die now. And he has a lot to live for."

"Just do me a favor?" Gemma asked.

"Anything." Corrie replied.

"Don't let Doctor Tara Knowles anywhere near him. She's broken his heart enough and she's only going to cause trouble." Gemma said.

"Nobody goes in unless they're on his visiting list. She's not on it." Corrie said. She was surprised when Gemma hugged her tightly.

"Thank you," Gemma said wetly.

"You're welcome." Corrie whispered.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: There may be some confusion over why Jax was put on a ventilator and that it would be rare. I understand this. A reader (who has been on a ventilator) suggested it and I really like where it takes the story. It's a catalyst to strengthen the friendship between Jax and Corrie. The reason for the ventilator (besides the friendship) is that Jax develops a nasty cough. With him having recently had surgery on his right lung, to me it made sense that they'd want to lessen the stress of coughing on the repair in that lung so he wouldn't break his stitches because if he did that, they'd have to do surgery. Is it medically accurate? I don't know. I'm (obviously) not a doctor. I have no idea if anything I've written so far is very medically accurate. I just wanted to explain why I went with the ventilator story line. Since Jax can't really communicate besides writing stuff down, Corrie has to do a lot of talking. So again, I just wanted to explain why I went where I did. If it made any readers not want to continue reading the story, I'm sorry that it made you feel that way but there are reasons that I went where I did.

Day 36

"Good morning," Corrie said softly when Jax's eyes fluttered open. He gave her a small wave.   
"You're doing great, Jax."

He patted the bed next to him. She lay down on her stomach, their arms touching, her feet almost hanging off the bed since she was so much lower on the bed. She fiddled with some small piece of plastic.

"Your system seems to be fighting off your cold. We'll start reducing the oxygen level on the ventilator tomorrow to make sure everything is as it should be. Barring any problems, you'll be back in the medical ward by Friday." Jax scowled at her. "It's Wednesday. Trust me, I lose track of the days all the time." She smiled softly at him. He grabbed the whiteboard and wrote something on it. He tapped her shoulder a few times with his finger and handed her the board. It said "You Stockton?" She smiled.

"How did I get to be a doctor at Stockton." He nodded. Jax saw the pain play across her face before she sighed. Corrie looked up and gave him a small smile. "It's a long story." Jax scribbled on his whiteboard and showed it to her. It said "I got time." She chuckled and nodded.  
"Well, I grew up about an hour and a half north of here. My dad worked graveyards at the factory in town. When I was about four, my mom woke me up at about 10:00 one night. I remember my older sister in her red nightgown, her blonde hair sticking out in a small mat from sleeping, rubbing her left eye. She was grumpy and confused. My mom said I needed to get up so we could go see her parents. I knew that was weird even then because it was night time, we were supposed to be asleep. It was also what seemed like forever to get to my grandparents' place and my mom hated driving at night. It seemed like we'd been on the road for hours though it was just an hour. I remember the headlights flooding the car. I remember hearing my mom scream. Then everything went suddenly still. Almost like I was in a dream. The sound of screaming metal, breaking glass, the impact was enormous. I hit my head pretty hard on the window. Luckily my sister and I were in the backseat. Anyway, I got knocked out for a bit. I woke up to my sister crying and smoke coming into the car. She took my hand and led me out the back window. We called for our mom but there was no use. She'd been killed instantly." Corrie noticed that Jax had reached out and started stroking her hair. There was a scowl on his face. She didn't know that he could relate. 

"The guy that hit us stumbled out of his truck, belched, and passed out on the side of the road. I remember it being cold and dark. I was so scared. I didn't think anybody was going to find us and I thought I had just seen some guy die after hitting us. It was so quiet. Finally, a car stopped to help us. They were a nice couple, I wonder what ever happened to them?...Anyway, they stayed with us until the first responders showed up. I remember being at the guy's trial and hearing how he'd had a lot of drunk driving incidents. I remember him saying that while he was in prison he'd been attacked and he'd been in severe pain ever since so he drank to dull it. He'd been put in prison because he'd tried to kill a man who brutally raped and murdered his pregnant wife. I saw that man limp in and out of court for weeks. Anyway, my dad brought my sister and I up to the podium to give a victim impact statement. I still have no idea what came over me that day. Maybe I was too young to know that I was supposed to hate him. Before my dad could say anything I told him that I was sorry that he'd lost his family and that he was in so much pain physically. I made that man a promise that when I grew up I was going to become a doctor and make sure that what happened to him never happened to another inmate if I could help it. I had no idea how hard that promise would be to keep." Corrie smiled sadly before speaking again. "I learned later that my mom was leaving my dad that night. She'd found out somehow that he'd been having an affair with one of his co-workers while she was at work and he was supposed to have been home sleeping. He was never the same after we buried her. He married the woman he'd been having an affair with two years after my mom died. They had my brother ten years later when I was 14. My dad started drinking and being abusive towards me. Apparently I was the one who said something about a woman visiting us during the day to my mom and she had called the woman and confronted her. I don't think my dad ever forgave me for that."

Corrie shook her head. She was exhausted from reliving all of the pain that had consumed her life for 27 years. Corrie ran a hand over her face. She needed to get out of the hospital for a little bit, needed some fresh air. Jax's hand was still playing with her hair. "You should get some more rest. I'm going to go take a shower, get some fresh clothes. I'll be back in an hour or so. Will you be okay?" Jax nodded. He could understand her need to break out of this place. He'd been thankful that she'd spent so much time with him. He'd asked her to be with him through this but he didn't think she'd really give him so much time. She'd traded out shifts at the prison so she could spend the day the hospital. She went to work at St. Thomas at night while he was asleep and was there when he woke up.

Corrie gave him a kiss on the forehead. "It's almost over." Jax closed his eyes and nodded. He watched her leave before he shut his eyes again and tried to get some sleep until she got back or until somebody showed up for a visit. 

As Jax tried to relax against the pillow but he could tell his whole body was tense. He had been tense since Corrie had told him about her mother. Pictures of what Corrie might have looked like at four years old flashed in his head. Her bright blue eyes, blonde hair, perfect full lips. Then his thoughts turned to how scared she must have been when her mother woke her up that night and put her in the car with her sister. He tried to stop his thoughts but they were coming so fast. The car accident, two little girls alone on the side of the road while their dead mother was trapped in a burning car, a man passed out on the side of the road. The flashing lights of cop cars, ambulances, fire trucks. All the bustling people moving quickly around the scared girls, shouting orders. Suddenly Jax was 16 again standing by his broken father's bedside waiting for the inevitable. He remembered how his heart had physically hurt during those long days that John had clung to life. He could feel John's lifeless hand in his own. Jax remembered how hard it was when Gemma left the room for the first time in two days, something he'd waited for so he could speak to his father. Jax remembered having to swallow a lump in his throat before he was able to form words as tears coursed down his face.

"It's okay, Dad." Jax had whispered hoarsely, squeezing his dad's hand. "Thomas and I will take care of her. I love you, old man." It had startled Jax that his father's heart had stopped the moment Jax had finished speaking.

Jax tried to keep the tears at bay. That was 16 years ago, he reminded himself. He was a man now, a man that he hoped his dad would be proud of. Jax instinctively reached out for Corrie's hand but of course, she wasn't there. Jax tried to calm himself but he felt his chest tightening. He felt the familiar panic set in. Suddenly he felt that despite the ventilator he couldn't get enough air. His breathing became faster. His palms started sweating. He felt like he was going to throw up which scared him even more. He didn't know what would happen if he vomited with the tube in his mouth.

"Mr. Teller, you need to calm down." Dr. Lawson deadpanned. "If you don't stop panicking over nothing, I'm going to have to sedate you."

"Jax," Monty's deep voice barely registered with him. "You need to calm down, man. You're okay."

Jax felt the panic starting to overwhelm him. "Jackson, baby, what's wrong?" Gemma asked when she entered the room.

"Your son is reacting irrationally to the ventilator and may need to be sedated." Dr. Lawson stated bluntly. Monty caught the look Gemma shot the doctor.

"Doctor, maybe you should let his mom try to calm him down." Monty suggested. The big guard couldn't help but feel relieved when the doctor took his leave. Monty didn't know if he'd restrain Gemma if she tried to kill the rude doctor.  
"Where's Dr. Samson?" Gemma asked as she took Jax's hand.

"She went to go get cleaned up. She should be back pretty soon. I texted her and told her to get back here." Monty said.

"Baby, look," Gemma said cupping Jax's face in her hand. "You need to calm down, okay?"

Jax made eye contact with his mother and tried to calm himself down. Instead, his whole body started shaking and his heart raced.

"What's the matter?" Gemma demanded of the guard. "Is he having a seizure?"

The door flew open. Gemma sighed with relief as Corrie walked into the room. Her hair was still dripping and her t-shirt collar was starting to get wet.

"Jackson," Corrie demanded pushing Gemma out of the way. "Look at me."

Jax looked up into her blue eyes that were serious and worried at the same time. She grabbed his hand forcefully in her own. Jax focused on her soft skin against his rough palm. "Breath in." She took a deep breath in along with him. He held it until she breathed out. "That's good. Nice deep breaths for me, okay?"

Jax nodded, his eyes focused on hers. "One more." Jax breathed in and held it before blowing it out. "Good. You're okay, remember? I'm not going to let anything bad happened to you." She realized what she'd said and grimaced. "Well, anything worse." His heart rate started slowing and the trembling was subsiding. "You know, Abel thinks the world of you. When he called me the other night, all he could talk about was you. He has so many plans for you when you get home. He wants to learn how to ride a motorcycle just like you do. He wants you to take him to the zoo and to the park. The day you get home he's going to have a big cake and ice cream waiting for you. All he could talk about for hours was you. That little boy worships the ground you walk on." Jax focused on what Corrie was saying and he was able to calm himself down. He reminded himself that he had to stay in control for Abel. If he had to get sedated he wouldn't be able to see his son.

"What was that?" Gemma asked.

"Panic attack." Corrie said as she ran her hand through what little hair Jax had. She clutched his hand in her other hand like it was a lifeline. "They're common in people on ventilators."

"Thank God you showed up when you did." Gemma said relaxing muscles that were on high alert. "That was some of the scariest shit I've ever seen."

"They can be terrifying if you don't what's going on. He's okay now." Corrie said. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Morrow but you're going to have to wait to visit him. He needs to rest for a bit."

"Please, call me Gemma." Gemma replied. She knelt down and kissed Jax's cheek. "Rest, baby. I'll be back later with Abel."

Corrie said in the chair next to Jax's bedside and ran her thumb over his knuckles as he fell asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Jax's lips crashed into hers as passion overwhelmed him. He'd been waiting so long to be able to finally taste her, to hold her. She kissed him back with abandon, their tongues dueling for dominance. He broke the kiss and laid his forehead against hers, his blood roaring in his veins. When Jax opened his eyes, his heart just about stopped. Instead of seeing Corrie, he was   
looking at Tara.

Day 37

Jax's eyes flew open. It had only been a dream. He massaged his forehead. It had been so real. He shook his head. He knew he shouldn't be having dreams about Corrie, especially dreams in which he was kissing her. And then to have Tara pop up was just like icing on the bizarre cake. The ship for him and Tara had sailed a long time ago.

Roughly 383 days to go, Jax thought to himself. The number was a little overwhelming. Still over a year left in prison. Right now it wasn't so bad. He got to see Abel every day but he knew once he got better and was put back in general population that luxury would be over. He'd have to go back to seeing his son, his mother, his best-friend, and his brother on the weekends. And who knew when he'd get to see Corrie after he was out of the medical ward?

Speak of the devil, Jax had to stop himself from grinning when she walked into the room  
.  
"How's my patient this morning?" She smiled at him. He gave her a thumbs up. "Good. The doctor is just finishing up with a patient then he's going to turn down the oxygen on the ventilator. We'll monitor the oxygen saturation level in your body to make sure everything is good. If everything goes well, as I'm sure it will, then you'll be off this thing by tonight. We'll keep you here just to make sure you don't decide to do anything wonky on us. Then, you'll be back on the med ward tomorrow." Jax gave her another thumbs up. Jax grabbed his whiteboard and quickly jotted down a question.

Recovery? He turned it towards Corrie.

"Don't worry, Champ." Corrie said leaning against her arms that were on the bed railing. "You'll be back in your pod in three, maybe four weeks. I need to make sure that you're completely healed before I can allow you back in general population. I don't want to have to keep re-sewing your wounds because you won't stay out of trouble." She teased.

Jax felt a little better about that. He still had three or four weeks of seeing her pretty much every day. He quickly wrote down something else and showed it to her. After? She laughed a little. 

"After you're back on the pod, you'll come in for weekly checks for the first month. If everything is as it should be you'll get checked once a month. Of course, if you get sick or injured in between times, you'll come back to visit."  
Jax briefly thought of the ways he could get injured to see her but that would include fighting. He wasn't about to tack more time onto his sentence for fighting just to see a gorgeous woman. Of course, when he was on the outs, anything was possible. It wouldn't be too hard to fake sick or hurt to get to see her at the ER.

"We ready to get this started?" A cheerful doctor asked as he entered the room. Jax nodded as best he could.

"I think we're very ready." Corrie smiled.

"I dunno, Dr. Corrie." The doctor joked. "I might just keep him on the ventilator until you agree to come work with me."

"Keep trying," Corrie laughed. "I got a nice set up at St. Thomas. I'm not ready to move."

"Okay." The doctor shrugged. He put his hand on Jax's shoulder as he pushed some buttons on the ventilator. "You're a lucky young man. You have a great doctor." 

Jax winked at Corrie. Once the doctor had left, Corrie sat down in the chair next to Jax's bedside. She was trying to hide the anxiety starting to build up within her. She really wanted Jax's body to respond well to the decrease in oxygen level. She wanted him off the ventilator and able to speak to her again.

"Your kid called me at 10 last night." She grinned. Jax rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Apparently he's getting a horse when you get out of here." Jax scowled at her. "Don't ask me!" She laughed. "I have no clue. He was just chattering away about getting a horse. I don't think you have much to worry about though. He said the horse was going to be purple." Jax nodded like "Yeah, figures." "He's been spending time with Grandma and some guy named Fifty Phil." Jax wrote on his whiteboard, Filthy. "Filthy Phil?" Jax nodded. "Um...okay." She shrugged. "Anyway, he likes to play with Phil and another guy named Tig. He said Chibs was being silly."

Hearing that Abel was having a good time with the Sons that had avoided prison made Jax feel better. Although, when he was able to, he was going to have to talk to Thomas about letting Abel call people at night. Most people in Thomas' phone didn't need to be talking to a two year old.

Throughout the day, the doctor came in and slowly lowered the oxygen level of the ventilator. Abel, Thomas, and Corrie spent most of the day entertaining Jax. At 7:45 the doctor came in to lower the oxygen level the last bit.

"Been doing real good, Mr. Teller." The doctor smiled.

"That's great news! I have to hit the road back to Charming." Corrie said rubbing Jax's arm. "It's going to be uncomfortable when they pull out the tube. You're going to have to take a deep breath and blow out harder than you have in your life. Your throat's going to be sore for a bit. Drink small amounts of water to help lubricate your vocal chords. I'll be back in the morning."

"Actually, Doctor Corrie," the doctor said in his deep voice, "My plan is to keep him on the vent overnight, just to make sure. We'll remove it when you get here in the morning."

"Sounds good." Corrie grinned at Jax. The doctor bid them goodnight and left. "I'm glad you won't have to go through that alone. It's unpleasant while it's happening but then after, it's okay...or so I'm told. Get some rest tonight, if you can. I have a feeling that Abel's going to talk your ear off tomorrow." She kissed his forehead. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "Night." She said with a smile.

~~~~~~~

"What do we have?" Corrie demanded as an ambulance pulled into the bay.

"Fifty-four year old woman, history of heart problems, difficulty breathing. That's all the medics told me." Katrina rattled off as the hospital doors opened.

Corrie and Katrina, along with other nurses hurried the gurney into a trauma room. "Get cardio on the phone!" Corrie ordered a nurse. "What's the story?" She asked a paramedic.

"History of heart surgery. BP and Heart rate are elevated. Caller reported problems breathing. She passed out just before we got to her place." The medic said.

The woman grabbed Corrie's hand. "You're okay. You're at St. Thomas hospital. We're going to take good care of you." Corrie said as she hooked the woman up to a machine to monitor her heart rate, blood pressure, and air saturation. The woman squeezed Corrie's hand. "I need you take a deep breath in." Corrie took a deep breath and held it. "Now out. One more." The woman did as Corrie instructed.

"Corrie," the woman croaked. Corrie looked at the woman's face for the first time.

"Gemma?" Corrie was shocked.

~~~~~~~

"Doc!" Thomas called. Corrie noticed Tara and a lot of the same guys that had been in to see Jax at the hospital congregated in the waiting room. Abel ran up to her and jumped into her arms.

"Hi!" He said happily.

"Hi!" Corrie smiled back.

"How is she?" A man with black hair and bright blue eyes asked.

"Is she on medication to regulate her heart rate?" Corrie asked.

"Yeah," Thomas nodded. "But-"

"She won't take it because it makes her ankles swell and she can't get her boots on." Tara snarked.

"Well, I'll prescribe her something that'll hopefully work a little better for her." Corrie said evenly.

"Jesus, it's her heart again, isn't it?" The man with black hair said. "I told her she needed to take her medications with Clay on the inside. I told her!"

"Tig, calm down." A tall man with reddish/brown hair and a long beard said.

"No, it's not her heart." Corrie said.

"Then what is it?" Thomas asked. "Because that was scary."

"Her heart is completely fine." Corrie assured him.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to talk to her and see her charts for myself." Tara said angrily.

"She'll be ready to go in a few minutes." Corrie said, ignoring Tara.

"To go? Are you sure that's okay?" Thomas asked.

"Your mother suffered a panic attack." Corrie sighed.

"Gemma Morrow does not suffer panic attacks." The man called "Tig" replied.

"She's been having anxiety symptoms since her husband and son among other close friends went into prison." Corrie explained. "She never said anything to anybody. Tonight, she couldn't hold it off anymore and it turned into a full blown anxiety attack. She's been given a prescription for anxiety meds."

"Thanks, Doc." Thomas gave her a small smile.  
2  
"Don't worry about it." Corrie said. "I'm gonna go check on your grandma and I'll be right back okay?" She asked Abel.

"Okay!" He said before kissing her on the cheek. She smiled and put the boy back on the floor. Tara glared at her.

~~~~~~~

"Thanks," Gemma said quietly as Corrie entered the room.

"I've also written a prescription for another medication for your heart." Corrie said sternly. 

Gemma scoffed and rolled her eyes. "If you don't take them, you'll end up back here and then I'll tell Clay and Jax that you're not taking care of yourself while they're inside."

"You wouldn't!" Gemma said shocked.

"I would." Corrie put a fist on her hip. "You have to take care of yourself, Gemma. Abel can't lose his grandma while his father is in prison."

"I know," Gemma said sadly.

"Then, take the damn pills. The other prescription is for anxiety. Take it whenever you feel you need it." Corrie ordered.

"Yes, Mom." Gemma snarked.

"If you want to end up back here, Gemma, be my guest!" Corrie replied angrily.

"Alright, alright. Calm down." Gemma rolled her eyes again. "I'll take the damn pills."

"Good." Corrie said. Gemma stood up and hugged her. Gemma knew that Jax had a crush on the young doctor and Gemma could see why. Corrie was beautiful, smart, and wasn't afraid to stand up to people. Gemma's looks could wither Tara on the spot. Gemma's looks didn't phase Corrie in the least. 

Gemma couldn't wait for the day Jax was released and could work on making the doctor his old lady. Corrie was an old lady that would make him proud and be what he needed to keep him level. She wouldn't pull him in a million different directions like Tara had. Gemma hoped that one day Dr. Corrie Samson would be Dr. Corrie Teller.


	9. Chapter 9

Day 38

Jax smiled when Corrie walked in the door that morning. She looked great in jeans and a t-shirt. Of course, she looked good in anything if you asked Jax about it.

"You ready to get that tube out?" She asking, shooting him a brilliant smile. Jax nodded enthusiastically. "It won't be long."

Jax thought it was kind of weird that his mom wasn't here. He figured she'd want to be here for this occasion but no matter, he had Corrie here and that's what mattered right now. He knew that getting the ventilator tube out was going to be unpleasant but with her by his side, he'd get through it.

"You'll be going back to Stockton tomorrow." Corrie said. She was a little sad that Jax had to return to prison. She'd have to watch herself when they were back in the med ward. She wouldn't be able to hold his hand or kiss him on the forehead. It made her a little sad that she would have to be a little more distant with him. She considered Jax a friend, which was dangerous since he was an inmate. Corrie knew that she had to be careful around the inmates. They were dangerous and a lot of them knew how to charm people into a false sense of safety. However, Corrie just couldn't bring herself to believe that Jackson Teller was charming her and would do anything to hurt her. She'd watched him with his son and how he interacted with his mother. Corrie saw nothing but love and respect from the inmate. When he was stabbed, she could tell he felt vulnerable and scared even though he did his best to hide it from others.

"We ready?" A nice doctor asked. Jax nodded. The doctor prepared everything to remove the ventilator. "Okay, when I say 'go' take a deep breath. I'll count to three. On three, blow out as hard as you can."

Corrie immediately wrapped his hand in hers. "This is going to be a piece of cake." She smiled at him.

"Go." The doctor instructed. "1...2...3." Jax blew out the air in his lungs as hard as he could. The tube being removed from his body felt strange and horrible at the same time. Jax was thrown into a coughing fit as soon as the tube was out. Corrie was right there instructing him to drink from the straw in a cup of water. "Alright, if anything comes up, please let me know." The doctor smiled before leaving the room.

"How do you feel?" Corrie asked him.

"Throat hurts." He grimaced.

"Keep talking to a minimum and drink lots of water. It'll get better soon." Corrie said. "I'm so glad that's over."  
Jax nodded at her and smiled. He was glad it was over too. Now he could get back to Stockton and just focus on getting this stint in prison over with.

~~~~~~~

Corrie had left Jax in the afternoon so she could go get some lunch. She didn't have to worry so much about Jax having a panic attack now that he was off the ventilator. Unfortunately she didn't know what would happen while she was away.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Teller." Dr. Lawson said as he walked into the hospital room. Jax hated this guy. He was pompous and rude. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Jax said in a hoarse voice.

"Good, good. Now you can go back to the prison where you belong. Sad, though, isn't it?" Dr. Lawson asked smugly.

"What?" Jax replied.

"Well, now you won't be getting the attention you're used to. I hope you didn't think Corrie was here because she wanted to be. We have to have a doctor with our patients at all times. Corrie just happened to be the newest doctor on the ward so she got babysitting duty. I know how she acted with you. Holding you hand, spending all night here. I can see how a criminal like you would think that a pretty woman like her would be interested in you as more than just a patient. But I can guarantee you that's not the case at all. Corrie's a very smart woman, Mr. Teller. She's beautiful and a doctor to boot. She'd be a real catch. However, we both know that she'd never fall for an inmate. A felon and a doctor could never work out." Dr. Lawson said. "Glad everything is back to normal. It'll be good to have you back in the prison."

"Problem?" Corrie asked from the door. She hadn't been there long but she didn't like Dr. Lawson and certainly didn't like him checking on her patients.

"No," Dr. Lawson smirked. "I was just saying how good it will be to have all of our guests under one roof again."

"Right," Corrie rolled her eyes. Dr. Lawson turned on his heel and left the room. "Arrrgh," Corrie said in frustration. "I hate that guy. He's such an ass." 

Jax nodded but he couldn't help thinking over what the doctor had said. Jax knew that Corrie didn't have to be here. He knew that he only needed a prison guard to stand outside his door. So, Corrie was spending so much time with him for some other reason. But, he thought about his relationship with Tara and how badly that had ended. Tara was smart and beautiful too. An outlaw and a doctor didn't really work in his world. Jax figured he'd have to pull away now while he and Corrie were just learning about each other. That way it would make it easier on both of them. He was an outlaw. He was a felon. He was in prison. He was broken and damaged. There was no way in hell he deserved somebody like Corrie Samson.

"Hey, you still with me?" Corrie laughed lightly.

"Yeah," Jax gave her a small smile.

"You had a far away look on your face like you were a million miles away." She replied.

"It's just good to be able to talk." Jax grinned.

"I bet." Corrie giggled.

"Knock, knock." Gemma said as she walked into the door. "How's my guy today?"

"I'm great." Jax said.

"You sound like shit." Gemma smiled.

"The doc here assures me it's temporary." Jax said.

"How're you today?" Corrie asked Gemma.

"Much better. Thank you." Gemma smiled at the doctor. Jax frowned at them. "Doc just helped me get my head on straight last night." Jax just nodded. It was going to be harder than he thought to pull away. He could tell his mother was smitten with the young doctor and it was obvious that Abel was falling hard for her.

"Abel call you last night?" Jax asked Corrie.

"No," Corrie shook her head. "Must have found somebody else to chat with."

"Nah," Gemma replied. "Little shit was out by 9 last night. He had a busy day playing with Kenny and Ellie."

"Opie's kids." Jax explained when Corrie looked confused.

"Ah," Corrie understood. Opie was a member of the Club. He'd been at the hospital last night to check on Gemma and he came to the hospital to visit Jax regularly. "Well, I'm gonna go get your paperwork done so you don't have to wait around in the morning to get out of here."

"Everything okay?" Gemma asked once Corrie was gone.  
"Sure," Jax smiled weakly at his mom.

"Don't lie to me, Jackson." Gemma ordered.

"Everything is fine, Ma." Jax said.

"Okay, baby," Gemma said, placing a kiss on his forehead.


	10. Chapter 10

Day 39

"Daddy!" Abel cried as he ran into the medical ward of Stockton. Jax had just been settled back into his usual bed.

"Hey, buddy." Jax smiled and leaned down to swing Abel up into the bed with him.

"Fiss and ducks, Daddy!" Abel said smiling.

"What?" Jax scowled at his son.

"We went to the park and fed the ducks." Corrie smiled following a few steps behind the toddler.   
"A fish stuck it's mouth out of the water to say hi."

"Why'd you take him to the park?" Jax asked, realizing too late how that sounded. "I mean, where's Thomas or my mom?"

"Your mom went with a friend to do some shopping. And Thomas has his own life to live to use his words." Corrie smiled and ran a hand through Abel's hair.

"I knew I should have asked somebody else to stay with him." Jax shook his head. "You shouldn't get stuck watching him." Jax was afraid that Abel would get too close to Corrie and that once he got out of prison, she wouldn't be around to see him anymore. Abel didn't need any more women in his life to abandon him. He'd already been left by his mom who was getting clean. It was admirable that Wendy had wanted to clean up her life so she could be a mother but that had been almost three years ago. Now, she had a job at a rehab center and apparently a girlfriend. Jax didn't mind any of that. It was the fact that Wendy had been clean for over two years and hadn't even tried to see Abel. And then there had been Abel's relationship with Tara. Tara had been Abel's mother. She'd cared for him like he was her own. She'd been devastated when Abel had been kidnapped and taken to Ireland. Of course that had been over a year ago and Abel had been so little that he probably didn't remember Tara ever being a mom to him.

"You okay?" Corrie asked. She'd noticed the far away look in his eyes.

"Yeah." Jax nodded.

"You sure?" She was worried that he wasn't ready to be back at the prison.

"No, I'm fine." He smiled. "I was just thinking."

"You're not allowed to do that too much in here. Makes the doctor think you're gonna get sick on her again." Corrie smiled sweetly.

"Daddy, you sick, 'gain?" Abel asked.

"No, buddy. Daddy feels fine." Jax smiled at his son.

"Don't worry about it, Daddy. We had fun and it wasn't a big deal." Corrie winked at him.

~~~~~~~

"Hey, baby." Gemma smiled at her oldest son. He'd be on bed rest for another day so she was back in the ward with Thomas to visit Jax.

"Bro." Thomas grinned.

"Where the hell were you two today?" Jax grumped. He was happy that Corrie was off in another part of the prison so he could chew these two a new one. Only Monty would have to witness it.

"I had to get my nails done. Why?" Gemma asked. Jax turned his glare to his younger brother.

"I had something I had to take care of." Thomas said. Jax wondered just what his brother was off doing since Thomas looked guilty and ashamed.

"You couldn't leave Abel with Chibs?" Jax huffed.

"He was with Ope at a meeting." Gemma shrugged. "Why you so upset? You don't think Corrie can take care of your kid?"

"No," Jax shook his head. "I know she can take care of him. But what happens when Abel gets attached and I get out of here?"

"Then you two become friends?" Thomas shrugged.

"What if she doesn't want that?" Jax demanded. "He doesn't need another woman to abandon him."

"Excuse me?" Gemma quirked an eyebrow at him.

"You know what I mean." Jax shot back.

"Baby, I don't think you're going to get rid of Corrie that easily. And, I don't think you want to." Gemma smirked.

"Mom, I'm just another prisoner to her." Jax said.  
"You can be so stupid." Thomas rolled his eyes. Jax glared at his younger brother. "What? You can be."

"I love you, Jackson but Thomas is right." Gemma agreed. "If you were just another prisoner to her, she wouldn't have been at the hospital as much as she was. You have a bad habit of doubting people, baby, and it's understandable. Especially where the fairer sex is concerned. But sometimes, you need to stop thinking and just believe that a woman cares about you just because she does. Corrie doesn't have to be nice to you. She doesn't have to care. She doesn't have to call me to make sure I'm taking my meds like I'm supposed to. But she does. Stop looking for the bad."

"What meds?" Jax asked.

"Your medical Wonder Woman prescribed Ma some drugs for her heart. And Ma's actually taking them." Thomas grinned.

"And, she put me on some anti-anxiety medication." Gemma sighed. "I went to the ER the other night thinking I was having a heart attack. Turns out your mom has a lot of anxiety in her life."

"Imagine that." Jax smirked.

"Well, you two shit heads don't help matters." Gemma teased. "Just stop over thinking everything and go with it."

"Yes, ma'am." Jax nodded.

Later, Jax thought about what his mother had said compared to what Dr. Lawson had said. Corrie had spent most of her time with him while he was in the hospital. She really didn't have to do that. It was obvious that she got along great with Abel and that Abel loved spending time with her. Jax decided that, for now, he wasn't going to wonder about it. He may not be good enough to be with a doctor but that didn't mean they couldn't be friends. Besides, who even said that they were attracted to each other? Jax snorted a laugh. Okay, who even said that she was attracted to him? For all he knew, she had a boyfriend...although he thought she would have mentioned it to him. Of course, he hadn't mentioned much to her about his life.

Jax settled back against his pillow and decided that if he wanted to have a friendship with Corrie, he was going to have to let her know more about himself. She couldn't get a good handle of him just from his file. Besides, it stood to reason that if he didn't get involved with Corrie, they wouldn't break up. Then, she'd be in his and Abel's life for a long, long time. Jax let himself relax. He felt better than he had in along time.


	11. Chapter 11

Day 45

Opie took a seat across from Jax in the visiting room for the medical ward. He noticed that Jax looked better than he had in a long time. Opie could tell his best-friend was feeling good again. Opie would never say it for fear that Gemma would cut his dick off but he could see that getting shanked was the best thing to happen to Jax in a long time. Jax was more focused and more present than he had been for a long time.

"You look good." Opie said. "You going back to gen pop soon?"

"Yeah," Jax smiled and nodded his head. "That asshole, Dr. Lawson, cleared me to go back within the next few days."

"That's great." Opie grinned. "You can get this shit done and get back to Charming."

"You don't like being President?" Jax laughed.

"Nah, man. It's a shit job." Opie replied.

"But you're doing a great job, Ope." Jax said seriously.

"Thanks, man, but I can't wait to get back to being just another body in the club."

"I can understand." Jax said.

"So what are you going to do about the doctor once you're out of medical?"

"I'll see her once a week for awhile and then I'll see her once a month." Jax shrugged. "What?"   
He snapped when he caught look Opie threw his way.

"Thomas was right." Opie laughed.

"What did that little shit say now?" Jax huffed.

"He said you got it bad for the doctor." Opie replied.

"I do not have it bad for Corrie." Jax said.

"You really have it bad." Opie shook his head, the smile never leaving his face. "It's good though. It's nice to see you interested in an actual woman instead of a pussy. But, I have to question your choice a little bit. I mean, another doctor?"

"We're friends. We're not going to be anything else than that." Jax said.  
"Until you're out of here at least." Opie shot back. "Don't try to bullshit me, Jax, I've known you too long. I know when you have your eye on somebody."

"Nah, Ope. She's like Tara." Jax sighed.

"A selfish, frigid bitch who can't make up her mind what she wants? She's going to ask you to give up everything you've ever known, the things you've wanted your whole life, the people who mean the world to you?" Opie quirked his eyebrow.

"No." Jax gave his best-friend a half smile. "She's smart. She's successful."

"And you're just a mechanic with a GED, that it?" Opie couldn't believe Jax was pulling this bullshit again. Jax nodded. "You ever stop to think that maybe she sees more in you than that?"

"Maybe," Jax shrugged. "Abel likes her."

"Corrie takes Abel for a walk in the park so they can feed the ducks every afternoon before she goes to work." Opie said.

"I had no idea." Jax said.

"Well, since I've already sounded enough like a pussy for one day, just let me say that it's not up to you to decide whether she likes you or not. It's her decision to make. If she does want more from you when you get out, don't question it."  
Jax nodded.

~~~~~~~

"What can I do for you, Mr. Morrow?" Corrie asked the dark haired man with wild blue eyes. He was sitting on a bed in the medical ward with his shirt off and blood dripping down his shoulder.

"I'm in a lot of pain here, Doc." Clay groaned.

"What happened?" Corrie asked as Karina got a basin of saline and a medical sponge with soap in it ready.

"I was walking in the yard, minding my own business," he said loudly at the guard, "when some crazy bastard bit me."

Corrie quickly cleaned the wound. She grimaced when she saw the bite imprint. "That's...not good. It doesn't look like you'll need stitches." Corrie quickly put a bandage over the bite wound. As the guard was going to lead the patient back to general population, Jax walked back in from visitation.  
"Hey, Clay, you okay?" Jax asked the man.

"You look familiar. Do I know you? Are you my long lost son?" Clay joked.

"Nice, asshole." Jax laughed.

"Yeah, man, I'm cool. Just got bit in the shoulder." Clay replied. Jax shot him a look. "What? It wasn't my fault! I was just walking and the bastard bit me."

"It's Karma, Clay. You're finally getting bit back. Maybe you'll stop biting people." Jax grinned.

"See ya soon?" Clay asked.

"Yeah. I get released back to gen pop in a few days." Jax said. 

Corrie's heart dropped. She slowly flipped open Jax's file and tried to contain a frustrated huff. Dr. Lawson had made a note that Jax was ready to return to the pod. Corrie couldn't tell what upset her more: the fact that Dr. Lawson made a call about her patient or the fact that she'd been contemplating fudging the paperwork so that Jax would have to stay in medical longer. Granted, she didn't have any reason to keep him in the medical ward. He was out of danger but she was going to miss having him around. And, realizing that she wanted to spend more time with Jax and keep getting to know him was a problem. Over the past couple of days, Jax had told her about his dad dying when he was 16, Thomas' medical scare when Jax was 12, and how his mother had married his dad's best-friend. She needed to get a hold of her senses. Jax was a prisoner. She couldn't develop feelings for him. It just wasn't right.

"You okay?" Jax asked her.

"Yeah," she smiled at him. "Just a little tired."

"Maybe you should forego the walk with my son tonight." He teased.

"Never!" She laughed. "It's the best part of my day."

"Thank you for spending so much time with him." Jax said. He was grateful that she had made it a habit to see Abel. The little boy needed a sane person in his life.

"I should be thanking you for letting me spend so much time with him." She laughed.

"I guess we should both thank Thomas." Jax groused.

"Oh, don't be so hard on the guy. Don't you remember what it was like to be 26? He's gotta be a ladies man while he can." She giggled.  
"He said that, didn't he?" Jax shook his head.

"Of course." Corrie shrugged.

~~~~~~~

Karina shot her friend a look as they stocked the supply room of the medical ward.

"I can feel your eyes on me." Corrie said.

"You gonna rip Dr. Lawson a new one?" Karina asked.

"For what?" Corrie asked.

"Oh, like you don't know." Karina laughed.

"No. He made the right call about Jax." Corrie said.

"You just don't want him gone." Karina said.

"You can read me so well." Corrie huffed. "I just like his company. He's made the past few weeks interesting."

"And you want to rip his clothes off." Karina teased.

"Karina, we probably won't see each other once he's out." Corrie huffed.

"Yeah, right. You're spending time with his kid. Plus, the Sons end up in our ER a lot." Karina said.

"Maybe we'll be friends but that's it." Corrie shook her head. "What would an outlaw see in a doctor?"

Karina shrugged. "He was with Knowles for awhile."

"That's different. She was his high school sweetheart. His first love." Corrie replied. "I'm sure there's some bad ass chick that would suit him much better."

"You're pretty bad ass." Karina said.

"Karina, it's...complicated." Corrie said.

"It will be until he's released. Then, it's not complicated anymore." Karina shrugged again.  
"Easy for you to say." Corrie said. "Jax and I are just friends."

"Girl," Karina laughed. "You got it bad."


	12. Chapter 12

Day 57

Jax sat on his old bed in the medical ward. It had been nice to get back to the routine of prison life, although the company wasn't as nice looking or as entertaining as it had been in the infirmary. Jax wiped his palms on his prison-issue jeans. He couldn't believe how nervous he was. It was almost like he was picking Tara back up for their first date when they were in high school. This was Corrie. There was nothing to be nervous about. His heart started beating double time when she walked through the door.

"Hey," She said smiling at him.

"Hey," He smiled back. It hit him how much he had really missed her.

"How was your first week back on the pod?" She asked.

"A little weird. I can move around freely. I'm not stuck in bed all day." He grinned.

"Nice change of pace." She replied. "I'm going to need you to take off your shirt." Jax complied and had to physically stop himself from shivering when her warm hands started pressing around the cuts on his chest. "Does it hurt when I press anywhere?"

"No," he replied. He wanted to tell her that it felt nice.

"Any shortness of breath? Pain with breathing?" She asked him.

"No," Jax repeated, shaking his head. "Everything's been good."

"That's great." She smiled. "I'm glad to hear that. Have you been doing any physical activity?"

"Basketball, some weight lifting, light workouts in my cell." Jax shrugged.

Corrie nodded. "Just be careful. We don't need you ending up back here because of a concussion." She lightly ran a finger across a light bruise under his eye.

"We play to win, darlin." He grinned. "How've things been with you?"

"They've been good." She replied, writing in his chart.

"Yeah? Abel said something about you being sick?" Jax asked.

Corrie laughed. "I'm surprised he didn't yell at you for falling off the wagon." Jax quirked an eyebrow at her in confusion. "We've been playing Oregon Trail. He loves it. He slaps his hand over his eyes and goes 'oh no' whenever somebody gets hurt or sick."  
Jax laughed. "My son can be kind of a drama queen."

"Did he show you his owie?" Corrie asked.

"Yeah," Jax nodded. "He said he got bit by a duck?"

"He was holding a piece of bread out to one of the ducks at the pond. It got a little excited and got his finger." Corrie laughed.

"Abel's very proud of that owie." Jax said. "He told me that story three times in about ten minutes." They were quiet for a moment before Jax spoke again. "I'm glad you've stuck around for him. I thought my family would be a little more responsible."

"It's not a big deal. Your mom is stuck in grandma mode. She's done raising her boys. And your brother isn't ready for children. But Opie and the guy with the facial scars?"

"Chibs." Jax answered.

"Chibs." Corrie nodded. "They've been taking care of him too. And Opie's girlfriend is really good with him."

"Jesus Christ." Jax ran a hand over his face. "Lyla's been taking care of him?"

"Just when Abel's with Opie." Corrie shrugged. She tried to hide her confusion about Lyla from Jax but it didn't work.

"I like Lyla, don't get me wrong. She's a nice chick and seems to make Opie happy. But, she's got a history of being on coke and she's a porn star." Jax explained.

"Complicated life you live, Teller." Corrie smiled. "Well, you're free to go. I'll see you next week."

"Yeah, see ya, Doc." Jax said. He had to force himself up off the bed. He just wanted to stay and talk to her some more.

~~~~~~~

Day 64

Jax was even more nervous for this meeting with Corrie. Since their last meeting, he'd been having very vivid and extremely explicit dreams about the doctor. It made it a little awkward to think about seeing her face to face when his mind had conjured up such delicious dreams about them together.

"Hey," she said quickly coming into the medical ward.

Jax frowned, his eyebrows drawn together in worry. She looked haggard. "Everything okay?"

"Oh, yeah," she answered, a bit distracted. "Just a bit busy."

"Makes the time go faster, right?" Jax smiled at her, trying to break the tension.

"Sometimes." She shrugged. "But, here, most of the time, being busy means a never ending cycle of idiots getting into fights, all in the name of vengeance."

"Criminals aren't known for their smarts, darlin." Jax smiled at her.

"I dunno." Corrie shrugged. "Your deal was pretty damn smart." Jax looked at her, shocked, his mouth agape. "Opie told me. I can't blame anybody for how that ended up."

"If I were that smart, we wouldn't be here at all." Jax sighed, scratching the back of his neck  
.  
"Maybe. But if you didn't come here then we never would have met." She pointed out.

"True." Jax nodded. "But I had to get shanked to meet you and I'm not sure it was worth it." He teased.

"Gee thanks." She laughed as she shoved him in the shoulder. Jax was happy to see her getting back to herself. He didn't want stupid inmates stressing her out.

"Thomas said Abel's been acting out." Jax changed the subject and Corrie was relieved. She was about to blurt out that she was counting down the days until he was released from this hell hole.

Corrie shrugged. "He's pushing limits. Trying to get away with as much as possible. It's typical for a kid in his situation."

"I hate being away from him." Jax sighed.

"Yeah, well, when you get out of here, he won't even remember that you were gone." She smiled. Corrie forced herself to shift into doctor mode. She examined Jax's cuts and asked him the usual questions.

"Until our next date." Jax grinned when the guard came to escort him back to his pod.

Corrie watched him leave as fear raced through her head. She cared way too much about Jackson Teller and she knew she was headed into an impossible situation. She just didn't know if she could stop the inevitable feelings that were developing...or if she even wanted to stop them.


	13. Chapter 13

"This is Corrie." She said, answering her ringing cell phone.

"Hey, Corrie. This is Thomas." A male voice said.

"Oh, hey. What's happenin?" She asked, muting the tv so she could hear better.

"Are you busy right now?" He asked.

"Nope, just chillin." She replied.

"Can you come to the Clubhouse?" He asked. "We sort of have a medical emergency."

"What kind of medical emergency?" Corrie asked, wondering if she had everything she'd need in her medical bag.

"Opie's been shot." Thomas said.

"Where was he hit?" Corrie asked, grabbing her medical kit out of the hallway closet.

"Shoulder." Thomas replied.

Corrie hissed in a breath. "I'll see what I can do but if it's hit bone, he's going to need more than I can do at the Clubhouse."

"It's actually more of a graze. It's pretty deep though. Chibs can't get the bleeding to stop." Thomas explained.

"I'll be there in about ten minutes." Corrie said.

"Thank you." Thomas sighed in relief.

~~~~~~~

"That is a nice flesh wound." Corrie said as she examined Opie's shoulder. There was a clean groove through the flesh along his shoulder.

"Well, I knew if I wanted you to fix it, it would have to be good. Otherwise, Chibs could fix it and where's the fun in that?" Opie asked.

"I was 'bout to cauterize that son of a bitch until Tommy here called ya." Chibs said taking a hit off a joint and passing it to Opie.

"I'm glad you were able to restrain yourself," Corrie laughed. "I'm sure Opie doesn't want to get an infection."

"If he gets Gangrene, can I cut his arm off?" Thomas asked with the excitement of a small child.

"No." Opie said sharply.

"Aw, man." Thomas said, kicking at imaginary dirt on the floor.

Corrie quirked an eyebrow at Gemma. "Get used to it, baby." Gemma smiled.

"Yeah," a drunk man with short blonde hair and blue eyes said as he slung his arm across Corrie's shoulders.

"'Ey!" Chibs shouted. "Watch yerself, Koz. That's Jackie-Boy's old lady yer talkin to." 

Opie couldn't help the laugh that escaped his mouth. While Chibs was a little early in pronouncing Corrie as Jax's old lady, Opie had no doubt that it would be true just as soon as Jax was out of Stockton.

"Shit, I didn't know." The man said quickly and removed his arm. "Jax's gonna cut my nuts off and wear them as a bracelet."

"I worry about you people." Corrie laughed as she finished stitching up Opie's shoulder.

"You better get used to it." Opie said taking another hit off the joint Chibs passed him.

"You guys get hurt a lot?" Corrie asked, putting a bandage over Opie's stitches.

"That and I have a feelin' we're gonna be seein' a lot of ye." Chibs smirked.

~~~~~~~

Day 71

"Ope says you sewed him up the other night. Thanks." Jax said when she walked into the medical ward.

"You have some odd friends, Jackson Teller." Corrie smiled.

Jax put a hand to his forehead. "What'd they do?"

"Nothing too bad. Chibs called me old." Corrie shrugged.  
"Why?" Jax asked.

"Some guy wrapped his arm around my shoulders. Chibs said I was your old lady." Corrie replied as she started pressing around his cuts. Jax balked at her. "Any pain?" Jax shook his head. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just can't believe Chibs would say that." Jax replied.

"Obviously, 'old lady' means something completely different in your world." Corrie giggled.

"Yes, it does, darlin." Jax shook his head again.

"Any discomfort when you breathe?" Corrie asked.

"Nope," Jax answered.

"Good. Your cuts look good. One more weekly check and barring any setbacks, you'll be able to move to being checked once a month." Corrie said. She tried to keep the sadness out of her voice. She didn't want to go longer without seeing him. It was hard enough to go a week without interacting with him. She'd been paying such close attention to his cuts on the left side of his chest that she hadn't noticed the angry purple bruise on his right shoulder. She quirked an eyebrow at him. "What happened there?" she tipped her chin at his shoulder.

Jax shrugged. "Basketball game got a little rough."

"I'm warning you, Jackson Teller." Corrie narrowed her eyes at him and put her hands on her hips. "You be careful out there. You do not want to end up in here overnight because of a concussion."

"Yes, dear." Jax teased, rolling his eyes. As he put his wife-beater on before putting on his blue button-up shirt, he thought about what Corrie had just said. An idea was forming in his brain. "Although, the beds here are much more comfortable."

"You wouldn't get much sleep." Corrie replied, jotting notes in his chart. "If you had a concussion, you wouldn't get to sleep at all, actually."

That solidified it in his mind. He did need to end up in the medical ward with a concussion. What better way to spend a night than having Corrie keep him company? She wouldn't be able to let him go to sleep, either. It sounded wonderful to Jax. More time to get to know the intriguing doctor that was quickly taking over his every thought.


	14. Chapter 14

Jax huffed out a frustrated sigh. Clay had just lit into him again about being so reckless on the basketball court. Clay didn't want his VP to end up back in the infirmary. To Clay, it seemed like Jax was trying to prove that he was back to 100% after being shanked. Clay didn't know that Jax was trying to get his slammed into the ground with enough force to give him a concussion. Either way, Clay was upset with Jax and had given him a stern talking to about taking it easier on the court.

The game was about to get underway when sirens started blaring. Jax was a little disgusted with how quickly he hit the ground. This prison stint was training him nicely. He just wasn't sure what he was being trained for. Guards rushed out onto the yard from all over.

"INMATE DOWN! INMATE DOWN!" Came a familiar cry. For just a second Jax remembered the feel of the shiv going into his chest, the pain that overwhelmed his senses. Two familiar faces raced out into the yard, their blue scrubs making them stand out among the guards' black uniforms. Jax watched, mesmerized by Corrie's movements. She was focused and in charge. It didn't surprise him at all that he lived through his attack.

Corrie looked quickly around the yard, focusing on the basketball courts. She found him easily, his short blonde hair looked almost white in the sun. His hands were clasped behind his head as he lay on his stomach. It was the way all the inmates on the yard were laying. Her heart had almost stopped when the call came in that an inmate had been stabbed. She was almost sure that it was Jax again. Inmates didn't usually stop until their target was dead. It had been niggling in the back of her head since Jax had gone back to his pod. She was waiting for the call that Jax had been stabbed again and that this time he wouldn't make it. What better gang initiation than to kill the Vice President of a motorcycle club?

"Let's get him to medical." Corrie said, her attention focused back on the patient. The man, in his 30s, had been stabbed in the neck and was losing blood at an extremely high rate. If Corrie couldn't slow down the loss of blood, this guy wasn't going to make it much longer.

 

~~~~~~~

Day 78

It had been a few days since the incident in the rec yard. Jax was surprised to see the man that had been shanked tethered to a medical ward bed. He almost wished it had been him that had been shanked...almost. The guy looked extremely angry and he had a good reason to be. He was a well known, high ranking officer in one of the most notorious prison gangs around. Jax couldn't imagine who would have gone after him. It had to be a stupid newbie to prison life who needed to prove that he was a bad ass or that he was worth having in a gang. Either way, whoever had gone after this guy had a serious death wish. It made Jax a little cranky that this guy was getting to spend so much time with Corrie.  
"Hey, darlin." Jax grinned at her. "Looks like you got some new company."

Corrie huffed quietly. "Yeah, some company." She replied quietly.

"Awww, do you miss me?" He winked at her.

"Sometimes," she giggled. "At least you talked to me."

"Ah, the strong, silent type." Jax said trying to keep his mind off her soft hands.

"Something like that." She said. "Everything looks good. You shouldn't have to come back for a month. If you feel short of breath or anything in the meantime, make sure you get checked though."

"Yes, ma'am." Jax replied. "How long do you get to keep that guy?" He tipped his head towards the occupied bed.

Corrie sighed. "Not sure. At least until his stitches come out in 10 days."

Jax grimaced. "I'm sorry. I'll take a nasty spill on the basketball court so that you get some relief."

"Don't you even think about it, Jackson Teller!" Corrie huffed. "You do not want to end back in here."

"You sure about that?" He quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah, I am." She grinned.

 

~~~~~~~

Day 100

"What's eatin' you, man?" Opie asked Jax during visitation. "Thomas said you've been kinda pissy lately."

"I dunno, bro." Jax shook his head. "I'm going stir crazy. I need to get out of here."

"When do you see your doctor friend again?" Opie smirked.

"Eight days." Jax shrugged. "Why?"

"I think you'll be a lot happier once you see her again." Opie replied.

"Maybe," Jax nodded.

"Three hundred and twenty days left, man." Opie said.

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me." Jax huffed.

"Less than a year." Opie said.

"Yeah," Jax nodded again.

"Gonna have a party when you guys get out." Opie said.

"I'm not surprised." Jax smiled. It was the first real smile Opie had seen out of his best friend for a while.

"Gonna be on tribal land." Opie grinned.

"Russians?" Jax asked, a little surprised.

"Oh yeah," Opie said. "Want as many wedding presents as possible, man."

"Wedding?" Jax asked, confused.

"Lyla and I decided to get married the day you jackasses get out of the slammer." Opie smiled.

"That's great, man." Jax said.

"Gotta have my best pal be my best man, right?" Opie asked.

"Of course." Jax said. He couldn't help grinning like a fool. He was thrilled that his best friend had found happiness again after Donna had been killed.

"I figured as much." Opie said. "We have you down for a plus one."

"Plus one?" Jax asked. "You have too much faith in me, man. There's no way I'll be able to scare up a date just hours after getting out of prison."

"Oh, no, I know. I figured you'd already have your date picked out." Opie quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Really, Ope?" Jax shot his friend a "are you kidding me?" look.  
"Hey, just giving my best friend an opportunity to take the woman he likes on a date." Opie shrugged.

"You want me to take Corrie to your wedding as our first date? A wedding in which I'll kill the guy who tried to have me killed?" Jax asked.

"She won't know about the Russian." Opie said.

"I dunno, Opie." Jax shook his head.

"Think about it." Opie replied. "I'm sure your mom will probably mention it to Corrie anyway. Those two are thick as thieves lately."

"I don't know what to do with that information." Jax said, a perplexed look on his face. "A woman my mom actually likes?"

"A woman that actually likes your mom?" Opie shot back. "This one is a keeper."

"We haven't even been on a date." Jax glared.

"Right. I'm trying to change that." Opie laughed.

"I just don't know, Opie. I don't know if I can ask her. I really like her, man. What if she doesn't like me?" Jax asked.

"You have eight days to grow some balls." Opie said.


	15. Chapter 15

It was a brisk, overcast day. Abel walked next to her, chattering away as usual. A young toddler walked unsteadily in front of her. Both boys were excited. Up ahead, crouching down with arms held wide, inviting both boys for a big hug was Jax.

"Thomas, slow down," Corrie heard herself say to the youngest boy when he picked up speed on the uneven ground.

The boy happily repeated "Da da da," as he headed towards a smiling Jax. When the boy reached the biker, Jax swept him up into his arms and placed a kiss on his cheek. Likewise, Jax also swept Abel up in his other arm and blew a raspberry on his cheek causing both boys to giggle.

Jax grinned at her as she approached. "Hey, mama. Boys been good today?"

She stood on her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss. "Of course they have been." She grinned as Jax put Abel back on the ground and intertwined his free hand with hers.

Corrie's breath caught in her throat when she how intense Jax's gaze was when it locked onto hers. It was filled with such love and devotion. She felt content and right with him and their boys.

A knock on her bedroom door ripped Corrie from her dream. She shook her head to rid herself of the images. It had seemed so real. Corrie swallowed down the anxiety that bubbled up in her throat. Why was she dreaming about Jax? And why was it that she was dreaming of them having a son together? Corrie decided she must have been reacting to the stress she'd been under lately. She'd had to put in longer hours at St. Thomas, the guy in the medical ward at Stockton had been giving her a difficult time, and she'd been spending most of her free time at the Clubhouse or with Abel.

"You up, Sleeping Beauty?" Karina asked peeking her head in the door.

"Yeah, I'm up." Corrie said a little dazed.

"Nightmare?" Karina quirked an eyebrow at her friend.

"No, just the opposite. A happy little dream." Corrie said.

"Nice change for once." Karina replied.

"Yes, it is." Corrie agreed.

~~~~~~~

Day 125  
Jax limped into the medical ward. All of his anxieties eased the second he saw Corrie at the small desk in the far right corner of the room. He'd been edgy and out of sorts since his last check up 17 days ago. He'd been prepared to ask Corrie to be his date to Opie's wedding. He'd actually been looking forward to getting the question out and off his shoulders only to have his hopes dashed when Corrie hadn't been at Stockton that day.

When Corrie turned to face him, he gave her a sheepish smile.

"What did you do?" She asked. He could see her fight the smile forming on her lips. He thought it was cute that she was trying to act like he was an inconvenience when it was obvious that she was happy to see him.

"I jumped for the ball and came down on my foot weird." Jax said as he took a seat on his usual bed.

"That pop was just sick." Monty said shaking his head as he left the room.

"Great." Corrie rolled her eyes.

All of the easiness Jax had been feeling upon seeing her was gone in a flash when she turned and he caught sight of her full face. An angry bruise with a cut marred her left cheek. "What happened?" He demanded cupping her face.

"Occupational hazard." She said, her eyes sliding to the inmate that was still laid up in the medical ward. "Take your shoe off." Instead of obeying her order, Jax moved to stand up. Corrie put a strong hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down to sit on the bed. "He's not worth extra time away from your son. Now, take off your shoe."

Jax winced as he pulled off his sneaker. "I could make it look like an accident, you know." He said quietly.

Corrie chuckled as she carefully removed his sock and threw it at his face. "There's no need."

"Shouldn't he be back on the pod by now?" Jax asked.

"Infection set in. He should be gone in a few days." Corrie smirked at Jax as she poked and prodded his ankle. "I don't think you broke anything. We'll put an ice pack on it for 15 minutes. Lay back on the bed." She ordered. When Jax was laid back, she put two pillows under his ankle and a blue gel ice pack over a towel she placed on his ankle.

"I missed you at my last check-up." Jax smirked at her.  
"Yeah, I'm sorry I wasn't here." She said pulling up her stool so she could sit down. "I had to pull a double at St. Thomas the day before so there was no way I could stay awake long enough to drive up here."

"Yikes." Jax hissed. "Have you talked to Lyla or Opie recently?"

"Oh yeah." Corrie laughed. "I had to give Lyla some anti-anxiety pills the other day. This wedding has her flustered."

"You goin?" Jax asked, a little scared of her answer.

Corrie shrugged. "I hadn't really thought about it."

"Well, you should think about it." Jax smiled. "Should be a good party being on the day a lot of the members get out of prison."

"I dunno if I wanna see anybody getting out on that day." She crinkled her nose at him.

"Liar." Jax teased her.

"Okay, there may be one guy." She replied.

"Oh yeah?" Jax quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah. I haven't been able to get my mind off of him since the first time I saw him." She smirked.

"What's he like?" Jax probed.

"I'm not sure. I only saw him for a few minutes. He has these beautiful blue eyes." She said, locking her eyes on Jax's. "And this gray hair."

"Oh ha ha!" Jax huffed. "Clay is not somebody that you want to see outside of here, trust me."

"Oh, a little defensive, aren't we?" Corrie laughed.

"Damn right, I am." Jax answered. "You're going to that wedding with me."

"I am?" It was her turn to quirk an eyebrow at him.

"Yes, you are. I have to make a good impression. I'm not only the groom's best pal but I'm also his best man. I'm the VP, I gotta look good. Especially since there will be some big hitters from my world there." Jax said. He'd rambled a little after he realized that he hadn't asked her to go with him; he'd told her she was going with him.  
"Well, then. Since you put it that way, I guess I have to go. I can't be responsible for you showing up stag, now can I?" She smiled.

"I don't think you want to carry that weight, darlin." Jax grinned, glad she hadn't been offended.

~~~~~~~

A few days later, Corrie was dropping Abel off with Gemma at TM. They'd just gotten done with their daily walk. The sleepy toddler had his head on Corrie's shoulder and his arms around her neck.

"Looks like it's nap time." Gemma grinned taking Abel from Corrie.

"Yeah, he had a busier walk than normal. He spent most of the time playing with a Golden Retriever puppy." Corrie laughed.

"Great. Now all I'm going to hear for the next month is that he wants a Goddamn dog." Gemma laughed.

"We already talked about it." Corrie informed the older woman. "He decided that seeing the dogs at the park was enough because he doesn't have to clean up their poop."

"Good thinkin, Doc." Gemma replied. "Hey, you goin to Ope and Lyla's wedding?"

"Funny you should ask." Corrie smiled.

"Why's that?"

"I was told that I'm going." Corrie said trying to keep the blush from her cheeks and failing miserable.

"I know that look." Gemma teased. "Somebody you really like asked you to go with them, didn't they?"

"Actually, your son told me I was going with him." Corrie said, a huge smile spreading across her lips.

"Whoa." Gemma smiled back. "You had me worried for a second. Usually Jax has more manners than to tell a woman that she's going with him on a date."

"I didn't mind." Corrie shrugged.

"Yeah, I can see that." Gemma chuckled. "I'm glad. I think you'll be really good for him."  
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Gem. We're going to a wedding. It might not lead anywhere." Corrie said, hoping she was extremely wrong.

"Yeah," Gemma repeated. "We'll see."

~~~~~~~

"Why are you smiling like a damn fool?" Thomas asked his mother later in the TM office.

"Am I?" Gemma asked.

"You look like a high school girl who decided to lose her virginity to the captain of the football team." Thomas replied.

"Nice," Gemma rolled her eyes at him. "I just got some good news is all."

"You gonna share?" Thomas pressed.

"Jax told Corrie that he was taking her to Opie's wedding." Gemma said as she began smiling again.

"Jax told a woman that he was taking her on a date?" Thomas asked in surprise.

"That was my reaction, too. Doctor Corrie Samson is a very different woman from the usual hussies your brother dates. She's beautiful, smart..."

"She's not so different from Tara." Thomas cut in.

"She's a world away from Tara. Look at the past couple of months. Corrie has accepted the Club as friends, she's spending time with Abel that she doesn't need to. She accepts Jax for who he is and not who she wants him to be. She accepts his life and isn't trying to pull him away from his family." Gemma said.

"Not yet anyway. She may get into it and realize that she can't handle this life." Thomas said.

"Oh," Gemma narrowed her eyes in thought. "I have a feeling that's not going to be the case at all. In any event, it's a good thing that those two are going on a date when he's out of Stockton. All we talk about are her and Abel."


	16. Chapter 16

"That one's fine," Karina huffed for what seemed the thousandth time that day.

"I dunno. What about..."

"No," Karina ground out. "Wear the one you have on. It's perfect. You're driving me crazy, Corrie." Karina said, putting her hands on her hips.

"I just want to look perfect." Corrie said.

"You look gorgeous. Jax is going to love anything you wear. You're done trying on every dress you own. You're wearing that one and that's final. Now, go take a shower so you can do your hair and make-up or you're never going to be ready by the time he comes to pick you up."

"Oh God," Corrie groaned. "He's going to pick me up on his bike! I can't wear a dress and ride on a motorcycle!"

"I'll figure something out, you go get in the shower." Karina sighed, pushing her friend towards the bathroom.

~~~~~~~

Jax was luxuriating in the sun beating down on his skin. Even after the run-in with the new sheriff on their way back to the Clubhouse after their release, Jax felt relaxed. He could move freely. He could go wherever he wanted. He chased Abel around the wedding venue in between helping to set up for the big day. He had to make a conscious effort not to think about picking up Corrie in a few hours. He hadn't seen her in a couple of weeks. They both knew that he was fine and didn't need monthly check-ups anymore but it was an excuse to see each other while he was still locked up. But, now, in a few hours he would have her on the back of his bike. He'd be able to touch her freely. A shiver of anticipation ran through his body. It had been too long since he'd felt the touch of a woman in more than just a medical way. Of course, Jax was trying not to get his hopes up either. It was his first day out of prison. It was his first date with Corrie. There was no telling what would happen. And if Jax was really honest with himself, he was hoping that Corrie would make him wait a little bit. Sure, he'd sleep with her if she let him and he wasn't above trying to get into her pants tonight and there's no way he'd respect her less if she did sleep with him tonight but he had been enjoying the chase for the past 13 months. And there was the fact that he wasn't sure Abel should wake up to Corrie in Jax's bed the first morning Jax woke up in his own house.

"You still with me?" Opie asked his best-friend.

"Yeah, I'm still here." Jax grinned. "Just thinkin."

"Uh oh." Opie teased.  
"I'm just kind of nervous about tonight." Jax said. "I'm not real sure how to act on a real date with a real woman."

"Because all of the other ones have been fake?" Opie quirked an eyebrow at his friend.

"You know what I mean, Ope. It's different with the kind of women that biker's normally go out with. There's not a lot of romance involved when we want to entertain the opposite sex. It's just bring them to Clubhouse, get 'em a little drunk and take them back to a dorm room. But it's different with Corrie. She's one of those women that guys take to restaurants and try to impress." Jax explained.

"And that obviously hasn't worked out real well for her." Opie said setting some plates down at a table. "She's still single."

"Yeah, I guess." Jax shrugged.

"Come on, everybody knows that the good girls always fall for the bad boys." Opie chuckled.

"Yeah," Jax repeated with a nod. "And that hasn't worked out real well for me. I did the good girl/bad boy thing before. Got my heart ripped out twice."

"That was different, though, too." Opie sighed. Sometimes, he wanted to smack his best friend in the head so that he'd stop overthinking everything so damn much. "Sure, Tara liked the bad boy thing for a while but then she got sick of it. She kept trying to get you to leave Charming. Corrie has made herself at home with the Club. She's helped patch us up when we needed. She's had a couple of drinks with us. She's gotten to know us. Tara never did that. I can't remember the last time Tara spent five minutes with me. And Corrie is eager to talk to people. She's different, brother."

Jax smiled at that bit of information. Corrie was making an effort with Jax's brothers and it didn't sound like she had to try very hard. Tara had always kept the guys at arm's length, never really accepting them as part of his life or her life when she became his old lady. This time it would be different, he could feel it.

 

~~~~~~~

"He's here." Karina said needlessly when Jax pulled into the driveway. 

Corrie nervously ran her hands down her gray bandage dress that hugged her body. She had thanked Karina a million times for finding some black spandex shorts for her to wear under the dress so she could ride on Jax's bike without giving everybody a show.  
Jax sighed, licked his lips, wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans and knocked on the door. He thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head. Jax couldn't come up with a word that described how amazing Corrie looked. Her hair was in a simple twist held by a clip on the back of her head. Two pieces of hair framed her face. She had on blush, lipstick, and mascara. Her skintight dress stopped about two inches above her knees and she was wearing matching gray pumps.

"Damn," he whispered.

"Not bad yourself," Karina grinned. "Have her back by midnight."

"She's kidding," Corrie said nervously. "I promise I don't turn back into a pumpkin at midnight."

"You two have fun." Karina gave them a small wave and closed the door.

"You look...wow." Jax replied.

"Thanks." Corrie smiled shyly. "It's nice to see you out of prison blues."

"It's nice to be out of prison blues, darlin." Jax smirked as he lead her to his bike. "I'm not sure how this is gonna work with that dress."

"No worries, son." Corrie grinned.

"Did you just call me 'son'?" Jax teased.

"It's something Karina says." She chuckled. It was music to Jax's ears. "But, I'm a step ahead of you. I'm wearing shorts under my dress so nobody will see anything."

"Smart move." Jax nodded, handing her an extra helmet. Once Corrie had the helmet in place, she swung her leg over the bike, thankful for the shorts as her dress rode up. "There are hand grips for you to hang onto." He pointed out once he was settled on his bike. Corrie moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around his middle.

"This okay?" She asked.

"This is just fine." Jax replied trying not to smile like a jerk. 

Corrie's arms wrapped tighter around him as they took off down the road. She had to make a conscious effort not to lean forward and start kissing Jax's neck. She'd never been turned on by anybody's neck before; had never wanted to taste somebody's neck so badly in her life. But, she just kept reminding herself that if she gave in to her desires, it could startle Jax and cause him to lose control of the bike and kill them both. So, she settled on practically straddling him from behind and having her arms wrapped around him. It would have to be enough...for now.


	17. Chapter 17

Jax couldn't suppress his smile as he stood up at the alter. Since arriving at the wedding venue, Corrie had been greeted with warmth with the exception of Tara. Corrie was currently sitting between Gemma and Chibs. Piney had hugged her so hard that her eyes just about popped out of her head. Jax couldn't stop looking at her. She just stood out of the crowd, like there was a light around her that drew his eyes. It didn't help that every time his eyes strayed for another look at the gorgeous creature that accompanied him to his best-friend's wedding that Tara glared at him.

"Kinda weird to think this could be us today." Tara sighed. She was Lyla’s maid of honor. 

"Yeah, it could have been. In another life, another time." Jax agreed.

"You serious about her?" Tara asked him.

"I dunno." Jax shrugged. "I just got out of prison. The only thing I'm serious about right now is Abel."

"You gonna turn your life around for her?" Tara asked.

"Jesus, Tara," Jax huffed. "Can you lay off? No, I'm not going to 'turn my life around.' Not for her, not for you, not for anybody. SAMCRO is my life."

"Look, Jax, I'm sorry." Tara said. "Neither of us were ready for another baby."

"I can admit that I acted like an asshole. I shouldn't have broken up with you and then slept with the porn star. That was a shit move on my part. You running back to Chicago is what I wanted from you and it's what I got." Jax said. "If I had known you were pregnant, things would have been different."

"Would they? Would they really, Jax? You would still be in danger every day. You'd still be running guns and almost dying. What would be different?" Tara demanded.

"I guess we'll never know." Jax shrugged. "I don't want to fight with you, Tara. Not on Opie's day."

Tara sighed. "I don't want to fight with you either. I want us to be...okay around each other."

"I want that too." Jax nodded.

"Hey, we ready?" Opie asked taking his spot on the altar.

"Absolutely." Jax answered.

~~~~~~~

Corrie easily joked with Chibs and chatted with Gemma while trying to discreetly sneak looks at Jax. It really was nice to see him in regular clothes instead of prison denim. She also couldn't get over how sexy he looked in his cut. His swagger hadn't changed at all between prison and the outs. It made her irrationally happy to see him so relaxed and carefree around his brothers. It didn't even bother her when Tara started up a conversation with him at the altar. It felt really good to have Jax take her hand while introducing her to other charter members of the Sons. She couldn't quite put her finger on it but she knew that by showing up on the back of Jax Teller's bike and by the way he held her hand that somehow he was letting everybody know that she was somebody to him, somebody that was off-limits. She felt safe even though she'd been around the Clubhouse long enough to realize that some of the guests were usually rivals of SAMCRO. And then of course there were the Russian men. It hadn't escaped Corrie at all that while she was getting ready for her walk with Abel earlier in the day that Otto had slit his wrists and then while in the prison psych ward that he'd stabbed a Russian inmate in the ear and killed him. She knew that it was retaliation for what happened to Jax. It hadn't escaped her that that's how things worked in the MC world. Some of the guys had even talked about it in front of her. She'd picked up that Russians were here tonight; she'd heard their accents as they chatted easily with Jax.

"Whatchya thinkin about?" Gemma asked, nudging her.

Corrie grinned and shook her head. "How weird it is that I'm not more bothered by some of this shit. I mean, I should really be bothered by some of it and I'm just not."

"What shit?" Gemma asked.

"Give it up, Gem." Corrie replied. "I heard all about Otto stabbing that inmate to death this morning. I know what it was about."

"Baby, that's just how this life works. Somebody shanks one of your brothers, you shank them back." Gemma said. "It's the way you get respect in this world. You think you can handle that?"

"I know I can handle it." Corrie said.

"I knew you could." Gemma grinned. "You're going to make a great old lady."

~~~~~~~

The ceremony went smoothly. Corrie mock glared at Jax when he pretended not to have the rings when the time came. She laughed when Jax prompted Opie to finish his wedding vows with "I promise to treat you as good as my leather and ride you as much as my Harley." It didn't go unnoticed by Gemma, Tara, or Corrie that Jax had been looking at Corrie when he said it along with everybody else. 

It sent shivers down her spine to see how intensely he was looking at her. She knew that this was going to move fast and she hoped she was prepared for it.

Currently, Jax was sitting at a table with Opie, Clay, and the head of the Russians, Viktor Putlova. Opie was admiring the gun that Putlova had given him as a wedding gift. Jax knew that this was the opening that they'd need. Bobby, Chibs, Happy, and Juice were already on their way to the warehouse to deal with the other Russians waiting for guns. Now, they could all slip off to the woods to "test" Opie's new toy and kill all of the Russian bastards who'd been behind Jax's attack. It tugged at his conscious a little bit that he would be leaving Corrie alone at the reception. He would have liked their first date not to be mired in murder but he couldn't wait to see her once he was released and dealing with the Russians couldn't wait either. Jax was confident that Corrie would be fine for a few minutes alone. It wasn't like she didn't know anybody. In fact, it was quite the opposite. It made Jax happy and made him relax when he saw how comfortably Corrie had enmeshed herself with the club. And it made him almost giddy to see how everybody had taken to her, even his mother who was usually standoffish with new women in Jax's life. He guessed that was one more perk to Corrie having saved his life.

 

~~~~~~~

Corrie had noticed that Jax had went off somewhere with Tig, Opie, Clay, and the Russians. She knew what they were likely doing. She decided that she wasn't going to make a big deal out of it. If Jax wanted to tell her about it, then he would. But she couldn't pressure him into telling her things that he didn't want to disclose. She didn't want to push him away.

"At least it'll be an interesting story to tell the grandkids." Gemma said lowly to her.

Corrie gave the matriarch a half smile as they continued to dance in a group. Great, Gemma was already hoping for at least another grandchild and from her. It was even earlier to start thinking about children.

About half an hour later, Corrie was sitting down at a nearby table, having a drink with Lyla when the three Sons returned without their Russian comrades. Jax bent low and whispered in her ear, asking her to dance with him. Corrie smiled and nodded at him.

Jax easily pulled her close, her right hand wrapped in his right hand and held against his chest. Her left arm wrapped around him and settled on his back while his left hand was at the small of hers. They easily swayed together to the rhythm of the music. Jax had been sickly satisfied when he'd plunged his Kabar into Putlova's chest and he was happy to switch gears from killer to wooer of women. He got lost in the feel of her in his arms and scent of her. He was somewhat surprised to find Thomas and Tara in a very similar embrace on the dance floor.

 

~~~~~~~

It was close to two in the morning and everything was winding down. Jax was reluctant for the date to end but Corrie looked pretty tired. They made the rounds and said their goodbyes. Jax had contemplated taking a longer route to her house but he was afraid that she'd fall asleep and fall off the back of the bike. All too soon he pulled into her driveway. Once she pulled the helmet off and he'd stored it away, he led her up the driveway by the hand. They were halfway up the little sidewalk from the driveway to the front steps when he stopped and pulled her into a hug, wrapping his hand around her neck and sighed.

"You okay?" She said as she rested her forehead against his shoulder.

"Better than I've been in the last 14 months." He murmured against her ear. She shivered and he grinned. She picked her head up and smiled back at him. His hand circled from her neck to cup her face. He leaned forward and locked his lips with hers. The kiss started off slow. Jax took the clip from her hair and threw it out into the yard, letting his fingers tangle in the soft tresses. She wound her arms around his neck and moaned slightly at the tug of passion between her legs. Jax's tongue touched her teeth and she eagerly opened her mouth to him. It was almost too much when he licked inside her hot mouth. Both of them lost their inhibitions. Jax pushed her against the house, her skirt still slightly hiked up from the ride home. He let one hand cup her knee and pull her leg up. Corrie easily caught on and slightly jumped against him so she could wrap her legs around his waist. Jax's hands gripped her hips through the spandex shorts she was wearing. He thought he was about to lose his mind.

"Hey, Cinderella," A voice cut through the dark and brought them both crashed back to Earth disappointed. "Got a call from Anderson, there's been a bad accident on the 4 and we're needed. You got five minutes to get changed."

"Shit," Corrie huffed as Jax set her back on the ground.

"'Nother time, darlin." Jax murmured. "I promise."

"I'm holding you to that." Corrie grinned as she gave him a sweet, soft kiss on the lips before jogging into the house.


	18. Chapter 18

"Hey, Cor," Karina said softly, peeking into the Doctors' Lounge.

"Yeah," She replied sleepily.

"You want me to call Jax and have him pick you up?"

"That would be great, thanks." Corrie nodded.

"You have his number in your phone?" Karina asked.

"No," Corrie sighed. "I have Thomas' phone number though. He should be able to get you Jax's number."

"Okay." Karina said.

~~~~~~~

"Hey," Thomas said sleepily.

"Sorry to wake you. Can you have Jax come pick Corrie up at St. Thomas?" Karina asked.

"Sure thing. Everything okay?" Thomas asked running a hand over his face.

"Yeah, she just got into an altercation with one of our patients; ended up rolling her ankle and getting a deep bone bruise on her knee. Our boss put her on leave for a few days but I don't get off work for another couple of hours." Karina explained.

"He'll be there in a jiff." Thomas promised.

~~~~~~~

"Hey, asshole." Thomas groused at his still sleeping brother.

"Urgh," Jax groaned. "What time is it?"

"Six in the A.M." Thomas answered.

"Jesus, I thought you were going to tell me that Ma was going to have my ass because I was late for work." Jax huffed. 

"Nah, Karina called. Apparently something happened at the hospital and Corrie needs a ride home." Thomas explained.  
"Why'd Karina call you? What happened to Corrie? Is everything okay?" Jax fired off questions as he quickly got up and slipped into his jeans.

"Because she didn't have your number. Something with a patient. And yeah." Thomas answered his brother as he padded back to his bedroom.

~~~~~~~

"Hey," Jax said gently shaking Corrie's leg. She was asleep on the couch in the Doctors' Lounge with her feet propped on a table.

"I'm sleeping." She answered. "Get one of the nurses to do it."

"Oh, I'm a very sick individual and only a doctor can help me." Jax chuckled as he kissed her hair, sitting next to her.

"Shit," Corrie smiled. "Sorry. I forgot Karina called you to pick me up."

"Everything okay?" Jax asked.

"Yeah, I've had worse." Corre winced as she sat up and put her legs on the floor.

"That's not exactly what I wanted to hear, darlin." Jax grinned.

"I'll be okay once I get away from those jackass bikers." Corrie shook her head.

"Um..." Jax replied, confused.

"Not you, of course." She said standing up and stretching. "There's a new club around, Devils of Mercy. Bunch of young punks on crotch rockets. They're extremely reckless. In fact, tonight, their president caused the accident because of his idiocy. When I went to draw his blood, he snapped. Pushed me halfway across the room. Roosevelt's sure the bastard is higher than a kite and I have to agree." Corrie sighed and caught the look in Jax's eyes. "Not tonight, okay?"

"None of the other guys mentioned a new club in Charming." Jax said.

"They're not really in Charming. They just ride through. We're all hoping that they just fade away." Corrie said cupping his face in her hands. "Let's just get out of here."

"A bunch of skeeze cause an accident because of their recklessness, then their so-called president puts hands on you and you want me to forget it?" Jax asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Look, Jax, I'm not stupid. I know that you're going to have to go after these guys at some point. I've been around long enough to figure out how this shit works. All I'm asking is that you not beat ass in the waiting room of the hospital that signs my paychecks, okay? I just really want to go home and get some more sleep. Please?" she begged him.

"Alright." Jax sighed. "Only because you asked."

"Thank you." She beamed as he stood up and put an arm around her shoulders.

~~~~~~~

"This isn't my house." Corrie pointed out when they pulled up to Jax's.

"You need to elevate that knee and you can't do that in bed. You can sleep in the recliner." Jax said.

"How do you know that I don't have a recliner at my place?" Corrie teased as Jax unlocked the front door.

"First, I don't give a shit. Second, I sort of forgot where I was going and just automatically came here." Jax answered.

"Nerd." Corrie teased again.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Jax rolled his eyes, grinning at her. "Come on." He wrapped his arm around her shoulders again.

"You think we're both going to fit?" She asked.

"Yup." He replied. He sat in the chair and had her sit on his lap. Once he had the footrest up, she turned on her side and snuggled against him.

"I'm sure I would be fine by myself." She said as she closed her eyes.

"I don't want you to have nightmares." Jax said as he rested his cheek against her head.

~~~~~~

It had been two days since Jax had talked to Corrie. He'd been busy with club business, mostly watching and listening for news on the Devils of Mercy. SAMCRO had agreed that after the accident the president had caused that they needed to get these clowns out of Charming. The Devils were lucky that nobody had been too badly injured by their reckless behavior. They would rip through the quiet streets of Charming at breakneck speeds and SAMCRO knew it was only a matter of time before somebody was killed. The citizens of Charming were looking to the Sons to drive these menaces out of their town.

Jax walked through the halls of St. Thomas, easily picking up on the Devils' cuts in the waiting room. He half-wondered what they'd this time to land back at the hospital so soon. Finally he found who he was looking for: Karina.

"Hey, Nurse Kay." Jax grinned.

"Hey, Jax." Karina rolled her eyes. "Lemme guess, Corrie's not at home and you want to know where to find her?"

"Am I that transparent?" Jax asked.

"Yes." Karina laughed. 

It made Jax a little uncomfortable when the smile slid off Karina's face and she looked around to make sure nobody was listening to them. "She got a job offer from Stockton. More money, better benefits. She took off for her dad's cabin for a couple of days to think about it." Karina wrote down directions. Jax took the paper with a heavy heart, determined to wish Corrie well.

~~~~~~~

The whole way to the cabin, Jax's heart felt like it was heavy and was going to drop out of his feet. He'd been friends with Corrie for 13 months while he was in Stockton. He was finally able to start exploring a relationship with her and now he was losing her back to the prison where they had met.

He pulled into the driveway next to her car, ready for her to tell him the bad news. The front door was open so he knocked lightly and stepped inside. Corrie smiled and gave him a small wave. She had her cell phone pressed to her ear.

"Margaret, we've been over this. My decision is final." Corrie huffed before flipping the phone closed. "Hey."

"Hey," He said, running a hand over his hair.

"Everything okay?" Corrie asked.

"Talked to Karina at the hospital." Jax shrugged.

Corrie sighed and crossed her arms in front of her. "Wonderful. What did she tell you?"

"That Stockton offered you a good job with them." Jax replied.

"They did." Corrie said.

"It sucks that I just got out and now you're leaving." Jax said.

"I'm not leaving." Corrie shook her head. "I turned them down."

"What? Why?" Jax asked.

"I thought you'd be happier." Corrie grinned.

"I am, I mean, that's great but it's a better job." Jax said  
.  
"Yeah but there's one reason that I can't move to Stockton." Corrie said.

"What?" Jax asked.

"There's a little boy who depends on me to take him walking every day." Corrie answered.

"You turned down the job because of walks?" Jax asked, not understanding.

"No, idiot." Corrie laughed. "I turned it down because of Abel."

Jax was across the room in a flash, pressing his lips to hers. "You turned it down because of Abel." Jax repeated.

"What can I say? I love that kid." Corrie smiled.

Jax cupped her face in his hands and kissed her again. The kiss soon grew passionate and hungry. Corrie grabbed Jax's hand and pulled him down a hall to a bedroom, her bottom lip between her teeth. Jax helped Corrie out her clothes as she helped him out of his. He laid her back on the bed, tangling his tongue with hers as he massaged one breast and his other hand wandered down her body. She cried out when he found her clit and starting rubbing it slowly. He sucked one nipple as far into his mouth as possible, letting his teeth scrape over her sensitive flesh. He released his mouth's hold and laved at her hard nipple with his tongue.

"I need you," She croaked. It was almost too intense right from the start and as she slipped the condom over his erection, Jax had to focus all of his restraint on not coming right then and there. He was determined to make this last as long as he possibly could. He positioned himself between her legs, their eyes locked as he slowly entered her, inch by agonizing inch. Jax rested his forehead against hers as he slowly pulled out almost all the way before slowly pushing back in. She groaned and dug her fingernails in his ass, wanting him to move faster, go deeper. He continued his slow torture on her body. Her hips arched up to meet his. He picked up the pace just a bit. She grabbed his face and brought his lips to hers.  
"Faster," She whispered against his mouth. "Please." He was helpless to do anything else. She was so slick and hot around him, enveloping him. But it was the fact that it was Corrie. It was her. He'd dreamed about this for over a year. Jax increased his speed, slamming against her. "Oh, God, Jax!" She yelled. "Yes!"  
Without warning, her inner muscles clenched around him and she screamed out his name. With one more thrust, he was spilling inside the condom with the most bone melting orgasm he'd ever had.

~~~~~~~

"Shouldn't you be getting back to Charming?" Corrie asked later that night. 

They had spent hours in bed exploring each other's bodies, learning what the other liked, what got them going. In fact, Corrie was still coming down after Jax had buried his face in her pussy. He'd declared her the best thing he'd ever tasted and couldn't get enough of her. She was more than willing to return the favor and Jax again had an earth shattering orgasm half way down her throat.

"No," he replied sleepily. "Abel's with my mom...Unless you want me to leave."

"No," Corrie sighed. "I don't want you to leave."

"Good," he said, kissing the top of her head. "I don't want to go."


	19. Chapter 19

"Daddy!" Abel cried, running into his sleeping father's room. "Today we go see fissies!"

Jax groaned and rubbed his eyes. The look on his son's face was contagious and quickly spread across his own face. "Yeah, buddy, we're going to see fish today."

"Wif Corrie!" Abel stated.

"Yes, with Corrie." Jax agreed.

It had been a week since Jax and Corrie had slept together for the first time. Jax was surprised how quickly they settled into a routine. After Abel went to bed, he and Corrie would snuggle on the couch and watch tv together until one of them would lead the other to the bedroom for some slow sex before Corrie would head home. During the day, Corrie would sneak into Jax's dorm room at the Clubhouse and text him to let him know she was waiting for him. It was quick, dirty, and mind-blowing but it was the best sex of his life.

"Yay!" Abel cried as he ran out of Jax's room.

"Shit," Jax whispered. It had been a late night of club business. Clay, not to mention everybody else in the club, was getting sick of Devils of Mercy. The wanna-be MC hadn't done anything overt to draw the Sons attention...yet. But it was a matter of time before the two clubs crossed paths and something went down. Jax had no doubts about who would come out on top. Charming was the Sons' town afterall. But Clay had become different since getting out of Stockton, he'd become more quiet and brooding; locking himself in Chapel for hours on end. And now there was a meet set up with somebody Marcus Alvarez knew. Jax didn't want any more shit on his plate than he already had.

"Good morning, Miss Samson." Jax heard Thomas open the door.

"Morning, Mister Teller." Corrie replied. The sound of a smile in her voice had Jax grinning like a fool. He quickly got out of bed and headed for the kitchen.

"Jesus, bro, you need to put some clothes on." Thomas griped when Jax entered the room.

"Morning." Jax grinned at Corrie and gave her a quick kiss.

"Morning." She said, smiling back at him.

"I need to take a shower before we head out." Jax said suggestively.

"Nope. Ain't no way." Thomas crossed his arms in front of himself and shook his head. "I am not feeding your kid while you go have sexy time in the shower."

"Wha sessy time?" Abel asked.

"Nothing." All three adults answered in unison.

Corrie wrapped her arms around Jax's neck. "I'll make it up to you later."

"I'm going to hold you to that." Jax promised before heading for the bathroom.  
*******  
Jax was never big on fish or any animal for that matter when he was younger. When he got older, there was only one creature he was interested in and that was any woman willing to spread her legs for him. There were plenty of those to be had, too. So, the idea of going to an aquarium wasn't something that he would have thought up on his own but Abel had all sorts of ideas in his little brain about activities the two of them could do together. Only two had become three as Abel and Corrie grew closer and closer.

Now Jax was having fun just watching Corrie and Abel. Corrie and Jax were walking with their arms around each other and their free hands were holding onto Abel's hands. Abel would pull a hand out of somebody's grasp and point out something. He would point out a fish and tell Jax all about how that fish was in "Finding Nemo" and what the fish did in the movie. Jax would smile proudly at his son and ask more questions, making sure Abel knew that he had his dad's full attention. Every time they passed a big fish, Abel would cutely exclaim "Whoa!" and point the fish out to Corrie.

Jax wouldn't admit it to any of his brothers except for Opie that he'd had a good time spending hours looking at fish. Corrie had commented that Jax wasn't wearing his cut and he'd replied that for this outing, he was just Jax the Dad, not Jax the Biker.  
*******

Corrie had sat next to him in the truck, her head on his shoulder and their fingers intertwined. They talked softly about their day and planning a surprise weekend trip to San Diego for Abel so they could go to the zoo and Sea World.

Abel was passed out in his carseat in the back when they pulled up to Jax's house. Jax carried his sleeping son into the house and laid him down for a nap.

"Poor guy's pooped." Jax said settling on the couch next to Corrie.

"He had a busy day." Corrie sighed, cuddling in next to Jax. Jax had plans to doze off on the couch with Corrie until she had to go get ready for work. That was until Jax's cell phone rang. He sighed before flipping it open.

"Yeah?" He answered. "Jesus!"

Corrie sat forward on the couch, a concerned look on her face at his tone.

"What the fuck happened?" He demanded. "Yeah, I'll be right there...Don't do anything until I get there. I want a piece of these fuckers." Jax slammed his phone shut, put his elbows on his knees, and hung his head in his hands. Corrie put a hand on his back.

"What happened?" she asked quietly.

"Some of those Devil assholes jumped Piney." Jax said quietly.

"Oh my God." Corrie gasped, her hand covering her mouth.

"He's at St. Thomas right now. He's pretty banged up but he'll be okay." Jax said. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Anything." Corrie promised.

"Stay here with the kid until I can get my mom or Thomas over here to watch him. Somebody will be here before you have to get ready for work." Jax said.

"Don't worry about me, Jax. Just go take care of business." Corrie said.

Jax got up and walked to his bedroom. He quickly grabbed his cut and slipped it on. He stalked back to the living room and gave Corrie a quick kiss. If the situation hadn't been so serious, she would have jumped on him. That swagger turned her on to no end. But she knew he had to go and deal with business.

"I'm going to get somebody over here. I want you taking care of Piney. He'll listen to you." Jax said. "He'll just give the other doctors a tough time."

"Okay." Corrie agreed. As she watched Jax leave the house, she worried about what was going to happen next. She knew that there would be retaliation for Piney and she knew that it was highly likely that she would be the one to clean up whatever the Sons did to the Devils. Not that she really cared at the moment. She had become very close to Piney over the past couple of months, treating him on the down low when he didn't want anybody to make a fuss over him. She wanted the bastards who had hurt him to suffer for what they'd done. She had no doubt that the Sons would get rid of the menace that were the Devils of Mercy. But she worried that some of her new friends might get hurt in the process.


	20. Chapter 20

Jax paced the waiting room of St. Thomas' ER. Opie stood off to the side, holding Lyla in his arms as she cried softly. The other Sons were seated in the uncomfortable chairs, looking pensive.

Nobody had come to tell them anything about Piney. The only way the Sons knew that he was alive and feeling pretty good was that they could hear him yelling at the nurses to leave him alone. It wouldn't be long before Corrie came on shift and she would definitely tell them something. Jax's pacing stopped when Sheriff Roosevelt entered the room.

"Got a minute to talk, Op?" Roosevelt asked.

"What do you want?" Clay demanded.

"I want to talk to Opie about what happened to his pops." Roosevelt answered.

"I'm sure Piney could help you a lot more than Opie can." Tig piped up.

"Yeah, I'm sure Piney could." Roosevelt said, putting his hands on his hips. "But he doesn't want to talk to me."

"Imagine that." Happy growled.

"I could do a lot more about whoever put him here if you'd all cooperate." Roosevelt said.

"They haven't told us anything." Opie said quietly. "I don't even know if he's awake."

"Goddamn piece of shit! If you're not going to let me smoke in this hellhole, you sure as shit aren't takin' my Patron from me unless I'm dead!" Piney's voice carried down the hallway to them.

"Oh, he's awake," Roosevelt smirked.

"We'll handle it." Jax said, his voice a low, menacing growl.

"I'm sure you'd like to Mr. Taylor-"

"Teller." Everybody said in unison.

"Teller." Roosevelt corrected himself with the same smirk still on his face. "But, in case you've forgotten, this isn't Charming PD's town anymore. Unser isn't in charge anymore. I am. And it's my duty to make sure the citizens of Charming are safe."

"Fat lo' a good you've done." Chibs sneered. "Let this piece o' shite fake MC do wha'ever they wan'."

"If there's any retaliation inside of my city, I will not hesitate to contact your parole officers. Do I make myself clear?" Roosevelt said, his face a mask of serious anger.

"Crystal." Jax nodded.

"Great." Clay shook his head when Roosevelt left the room.

"Do you think he knows what he said?" Jax grinned at the rest of the guys.

"I hope so." Juice replied. "Take these fuckers outside of Charming to get our revenge."

"Exactly." Jax nodded.  
*******

Corrie steered clear of the waiting room. It would be too easy to get caught up in the emotions of the Sons and lose herself in trying to assure them that Piney was fine. A few bruises, but he was fine.

She sighed when she walked into Piney's room.

"Give it to me!" Karina screeched.

"Over my dead body!" Piney yelled. Karina was pinned in a corner by Piney's girth and he was holding a bottle of Patron over his head, out of reach of the very angry nurse.

"Piney, you can't have that in here!" Karina yelled.

"Both of you keep it down or you're going to get security called in here." Corrie shook her head.

"Tell your bulldog to leave me alone!" Piney shouted.

"I am not a dog!" Karina kicked Piney in the shin.

"Ouch! Motherfucker." Piney groused, instinctively bending down to cradle his aching leg. Karina made a grab for the Patron, successfully wrenching it from Piney's meaty fist. "Give it back to me!"

"You can't have it in here!" Karina said.

"I swear to God, if I have to call your son in here, Piermont, I will do it." Corrie said.

"I don't give a shit! I want my bottle back!" He growled.

"Get back into bed. You can have it back when you're discharged." Corrie demanded.

"Yeah, when will that be?" Piney demanded right back.

"When I know for sure that you're okay." Corrie answered.

"I'm fine! Now give me my bottle!" Piney lunged at Karina. She shrieked and protected the bottle like it was a football. Corrie tried to get in between them.

"It's mine!" Karina growled.

"Give it to me!" Corrie said.

"What in the hell is going on in here?" A loud voice boomed from the door. All three of the struggling adults looked up to see an angry Opie and an amused Sons of Anarchy group watching them.

"She won't give me my bottle!" Piney explained.

"You can't have it in here." Karina griped.

"I will take the fucking thing." Opie said pulling the bottle out of Karina's grip. "Now what's going on with my dad besides him being a stubborn, jack-ass?"

"Um...well..." Corrie said flipping open Piney's chart. "He has some bruises but that appears to be it."

"Can he go home?" Opie gritted through clenched teeth.

"Take me home!" Piney cried.

"He should be fine to go home." Corrie smiled at Opie.  
*******

"Your old man never ceases to amuse me." Jax said lighting a cigarette. It was late, the moon providing the only light as Jax and Opie leaned back against their bikes.

"You're telling me." Opie replied.

Motorcycle lights cut through the night. "Let's do this. I wanna get home to my wife." Opie said.

"What you want?" The man growled getting off his bike. Two other guys were with him.

"You and your friends jumped my dad." Opie growled.

"So?" The man shrugged. He had a President patch on his vest. "Doesn't mean shit to me."  
"It means shit to me!" Opie yelled. "And to his club."

"Pfffft, ain't no club around here but us." One of the other guys said. His patch designated him as VP.

"The Sons of Anarchy have run Charming for years. We're giving you one warning: stay out of our town." Jax snapped.

"Or what? You, your friend Grizzly Adams, and his dad are gonna beat us up?" The third guy laughed. He was the Sergeant at Arms.

"I know this cholo." The first guy nodded at Jax. "Seen him around with that hot doctor bitch from St. Thomas."

"Man, you got a prime piece of ass. No worries though. She'll wanna be with a real biker before long." The VP sneered.

"Stay away from Corrie. Stay away from Charming." Jax ground out.

"Or what?" The President repeated.

"We go to war." Opie said.

"Yeah? All I see is a VP and a patched member. What does the Prez say?" The VP replied.

"You don't know Clay Morrow. He'll go to war in a heartbeat." Jax promised.

"Morrow? That the old guy who left that sweet piece of ass all alone for 14 months? His ol' lady is fucking hot." The Sergeant at Arms said.

"That's my mother, shit head!" Jax yelled.

"We won't tell you again." Opie said. "Leave Charming."

"Fuck you, Grizzly Adams." The President scoffed.

At the same time the VP was saying to Jax: "Man, you got a hot mom and a super-hot bitch waiting for you at home. I'm going to tell you all about how it is to fuck them both at the same time."

Opie and Jax both lunged at their antagonisers (A/N: Apparently that's not a word. Fuck it.) Opie and the President went down in a flurry of fists. Jax was swinging at the VP while the SAA just stood and watched, not sure what to do at first. He pulled Opie off his now bloody president and sucker punched the big guy, breaking open his eyebrow. Opie started swinging back immediately. Opie could feel the SAA's ribs crack. Jax took a fist to the nose that barely broke the skin. He was amazed at how badly these so-called Devils fought.

Soon, the Devils knew they were fighting a losing battle and decided to speed a hasty retreat back to their Clubhouse.  
*******  
Jax hadn't realized how late it really was until he pulled into the Clubhouse parking lot. The plan was to get Chibs to clean their minimal wounds and tell the others about what had taken place. However, Jax knew that Chibs wouldn't be cleaning his wounds because Corrie's car was parked near the Clubhouse.

"Jesus Christ!" Gemma huffed when the two men walked into the Clubhouse. "What the hell happened to you two?"

"It's nothing." Jax shrugged. Corrie got up from her place at the bar and walked to him. She had a slight pout on her lips that made Jax want to kiss her until she was no longer pouting. He put a hand on her hip and gave her a quick kiss. "Hey, darlin."

"You okay?" She asked.

"Never better." He grinned at her.

She pulled his face down so she could look at the minor cut to the bridge of his nose. "Doesn't look too bad."

"Nah, I've taken worse from Clay." Jax said still grinning.

"I'll get my bag and clean you up." She sighed.

"Rain check, babe. I gotta talk to Clay about some shit and then we'll probably have church." He said.

She nodded. "Call me."

"You got it." He kissed her again before going in search of Clay.

"Well, what the hell?" Gemma huffed at Opie.

He shrugged. "We had a meeting with the assholes who beat up my dad. Not much to tell."

"Great." Gemma shook her head when Opie wandered off towards Lyla.

"This isn't good, is it?" Corrie asked, wrapping her arms around herself.

"No, baby, it's not." Gemma put an arm around Corrie's shoulders. "It means we're going to war."

Corrie shivered at the word "war."


	21. Chapter 21

"Alright, boys," Clay said after everybody was seated at the Redwood table. "You gonna tell us what happened?"

"We got into a scuffle with the Devils' President, VP, and Sergeant at Arms." Jax said. There was mumbling from other members at the table. "Trust me, boys, I've gotten hit worse by my mom." Jax chuckled.

"Why'd you go after them alone?" Clay snarked.

"I wanted an answer for what they did to my dad." Opie answered.

"Did you get any answers?" Tig asked.

Jax shook his head. "Only answer they were willing to give is that they're looking for a war. They seem to think that they can run us out of town."

Happy snorted out a laugh. "I'll skin them all by myself."

"Just, hang on, Hap." Jax grinned at the Tacoma Killer. He turned his attention to his obviously irritated step-father. "If you'd heard what they'd said about Gemma, you'd have beaten their asses too." Jax said.

"I am sick of these fuckheads." Clay ground out. "They wanna take cheap shots at my wife? Fine. Gemma can handle it. But they insult my club and we're going to have problems."

"People are Charming are getting restless." Opie put in. "They want these guys gone."  
"They're going to get what they want." Clay promised.

"Don't forget what Roosevelt said, boys." Jax grinned. "Just make sure it's outside city limits."  
*******

Jax was tired when he pulled into his driveway. A wave of anger rolled over him. Thomas' car was gone and Corrie's car was in its place. He huffed as he threw his keys onto the kitchen table and shrugged off his cut. He kicked off his shoes by the door and padded to his bedroom where the light was still on.

"Hey," he said leaning against the doorframe. Corrie was sitting with her legs crossed on his bed, books spread out, and pen tucked into a bun at the back of her head. She was wearing a solid black cami that had black lace over it and gym shorts. He licked his lips.

"Hey," she smiled at him softly.

"Where's Thomas?" He asked, crossing his arms.

Corrie shrugged. "Said he had something to take care."

"What could he possibly have to take care of?" Jax shook his head.

"I dunno. I don't ask him about his business...kinda like I don't ask you about yours."  
Jax swallowed and looked at the floor. "Shit's about to go sideways."

"Yeah, your mom mentioned that it might be." Corrie said, starting to clear the bed of her stuff.

"Ope and I got into a scuffle with some of the Devils tonight." Jax said quietly, sitting next to her on the bed. He intertwined his fingers with hers. She nodded silently. "They think they're going to run the Sons out of Charming."

"Fuckin idiots." Corrie scoffed.

"I agree, babe, but they're lookin for a fight." Jax kissed the side of her head.

"Your mom said something about war." Corrie sighed, laying her head on his shoulder. Jax kicked his feet up and snuggled her to him.

"From the fight tonight, it won't be much of a war." Jax chuckled.

"How does this work?" She asked quietly.

"We drive them out, shedding as little blood as possible." He replied.

"What about families and...friends? Are they safe?"

"Innocents are off limits. So is showing up at any rivals' house. If it gets too dangerous, we go on lockdown." He explained.

"How does lockdown work?"

"We pack some shit and stay at the Clubhouse until it's safe." He gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

"What about somebody like me who has to work and can't be at the Clubhouse all the time?" She snuggled her forehead against his neck.

"I'd stay at the hospital until you're off work and then take you back to the Clubhouse." He laid his cheek against her head.

"But, they wouldn't really come after somebody who's just a friend, right?"

Jax grinned at her reluctance to call herself more than a friend. "You don't have anything to worry about. We'll keep you safe."

"A whole slew of men willing to protect me. However did I get so lucky?" She teased him.

"I got shanked, that's how." He grinned.

"Yeah, that was pretty lucky of me." She playfully bit his neck.

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Don't start something you can't finish."

"Oh, you know I can finish it." She replied.

"Yeah, I do but I don't know if I can." He kissed the top of her head. "Sorry, darlin, but I'm beat."

"Awww, my big bad biker is tired." She said snuggling back against him and closing her eyes.  
Jax rested their intertwined hands on his chest, his other arm around her shoulder. "You know you're more than a friend right?" he asked after a while.

"Mmm hmmm." She replied sleepily.  
*******

Corrie woke up a little disoriented. It had been awhile since Jax and she had actually spent a whole night together. It was also the first time that they hadn't had sex together while being together. Before, it had always been sex before they went their separate ways for the night.

She rolled to look at the clock. It was 5 am and she couldn't understand why she'd woken up until she saw Thomas walk passed Jax's door and go into his bedroom. It must have been him coming home that had woken her up. She laid in Jax's arms for a bit, trying to decide what to do. Should she try to sneak out before Abel woke up or should she just stay? She didn't know how Abel would react to waking up to her being in Jax's room. She didn't want to confuse the little boy, especially if this thing didn't work out. She started to slowly unwind herself from Jax. Their legs were tangled together and their fingers were still intertwined on his chest.

Jax groaned when she tried to pull her hand free from his. She stopped, hoping he would go back to sleep. Instead, he tightened his grip on her hand and pulled her closer with his other hand.

"Stay," he whispered.

"You sure?" She whispered back.

"Stay," he repeated.

"Okay." She agreed. How could she deny him anything? She relaxed once more and fell back into a deep sleep until they were both jarred awake by Abel jumping on them a few hours later.

"Hi, Corrie!" Abel cried, throwing his arms around her neck.

"Good morning," She yawned, hugging him back.

"Hi, Daddy!" Abel said just as excitedly to his father.

"Hey, buddy." Jax smiled at his son.

"You had a sleepover?" Abel asked.

Corrie arched her brow at Jax in amusement.

"Yep, we sure did." Jax answered.

"Not fair. Next time I wanna have a sleepover with Corrie." Abel pouted.

"Okay, buddy, we can do that." Jax readily agreed.

"Yay! Now, breakfast." Abel said.

"What do you want for breakfast?" Jax asked.

"Cookies!" Abel shouted, running for the kitchen.

Jax grinned down at her. "Morning." He said.

"Morning." She grinned back at him. He leaned down and kissed her. It was a sweet, caring kiss. He wanted her to know that she was more to him than a friend.

"Ew! Stop it!" Abel groused as he stuck his head back in the doorway. Corrie and Jax pulled away from each other giggling.

"Alright, breakfast." Jax said as he and Corrie followed Abel out into the kitchen. Jax wrapped an arm around Corrie and kissed her head. He couldn't help but wonder what their lives would be like now that there was probably going to be a war between the Sons and Devils.


	22. Chapter 22

"Hey, Abes." Corrie said as she walked into the house. She'd gone home to shower and change. "Where's your uncle?"

"Shhh!" Abel replied. "He's takin a nap."

"Really?" Corrie asked in disbelief until she turned to wear Abel was standing by the wall. 

"Really." She groaned. Abel had drawn all over the front door and surrounding walls.

"Walkies!" Abel cried.

"Yes, we're going for walkies. Please, go get your shoes on." Corrie said pleasantly. Once she was sure that Abel was occupied putting his shoes on, she stormed down the hall, slamming open Thomas' door. "Hey, shithead!" She yelled.

Thomas groaned.

"How could you leave a two year old unattended?" She demanded. "He could have hurt himself or worse!"

"He's not unattended. I'm here." Thomas mumbled.

"But you're not watching him!" Corrie shouted.

"He's taking a nap, settle down." Thomas replied.

"I will not settle down!" Corrie huffed. "Newsflash, asshole: Abel's not asleep!"

Thomas grimaced. "I told him to wake me up if he got up before me."

"Fat lot of good that did because he didn't listen!" Corrie barked. "I'm taking him for a walk. While we're gone, you can clean up the art on the door and walls."

"Fuck." Thomas groaned again. "What'd he use?"

"Crayons." Corrie said before stalking back down the hall.

"You want to go see your grandma and daddy?" Corrie asked Abel as soon as he was buckled in his car seat and they were on the road.

"Yeah!" Abel cried.

"Sounds like a plan." Corrie grinned.  
*******

"Gamma!" Abel cried when Corrie walked him into her office.

"My baby boy!" Gemma cried back grinning as Abel ran into her arms. "Everything okay?" She asked Corrie.

"I need to talk to Jax." Corrie sighed.

"He's in the Clubhouse, baby." Gemma said, tucking some bangs out of her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Can I ask you something about the club?" Corrie asked the matriarch.

"Of course." Gemma said as she pulled Abel onto her lap.

"Is Thomas a member?"

"No, that's always been Jax's dream. Thomas never embraced the life the way his big brother did." Gemma replied. "Why?"

"I went to pick up Abel for a walk and he was coloring on the walls." Corrie shook her head.

"Jesus! Where was Thomas?" Gemma's eyes almost popped out of her head.

"He was taking a nap." Corrie answered. "Apparently, he put Abel down for a nap and decided to catch a few winks himself. He told Abel to wake him up if Abel woke up first."

Gemma sighed. "I don't know what's gotten into that boy. He's been sneaking around, keeping secrets since Jax returned to Stockton after getting off the ventilator. I thought it was just something that he was dealing with, ya know? Having to see his big brother go through all that, especially after losing John the way we did. Old memories and all that horseshit. I may have to play FBI in Stilettos, as Thomas calls me, to figure out what's going on."

"While you're doing that, I'm going to talk to Jax about getting more reliable care for his son." Corrie said heading to the door.

"No doubt." Gemma said tickling her grandson. "If we don't watch you carefully, you'll end up with a cut trolling for pussy before we know it."

"Why would I want a kitty, gamma?" Abel asked her innocently.

*******  
"He's in his room, darlin." Piney said knocking back the contents of the shot glass in his hand. Corrie stopped and put a hand on her hip. "What?" Piney shrugged.

"Don't you ever give it a rest?" She asked.

"It's five o'clock somewhere, darlin." Piney grinned. Corrie shook her head and walked down the hall to Jax's room. She didn't even knock, there was no need to.

Jax was laying on the bed, his hands behind his head. He grinned and was on his feet the second Corrie closed the door. He put his hands on her hips and nuzzled her neck.

"How'd you know I was thinking of you?" he murmured against her skin.

Corrie's eyes slid closed and her hands covered his. "I'm going to have to ask you to stop before I forget why I came here."

"We already established that, babe." Jax said, sliding a hand around to squeeze her butt.

Corrie sighed. It would be so easy to let him ravage her but she wasn't here for that. "Your brother-" she was cut off as he locked his lips with hers and kissed her deeply.

"I don't give a shit." Jax said when he came up for air.

"He left Abel unsupervised." Corrie said quickly before he could kiss her again, trying to remember when her hand had traveled to his chest.

"What?" Jax yelled.

"I went to pick Abel up for our walk and he was coloring on the walls." Corrie said.  
"Thomas was coloring on the walls? That's kind of immature but that's not leaving the kid unsupervised." Jax shook his head.

"No." Corrie said holding up the hand that was on his chest to stop him from nuzzling her neck again. "Abel was coloring on the walls. Thomas was in his room sleeping."

"Jesus. Fuck." Jax ran a hand through his hair.

"Thomas said that he put Abel down for a nap and decided to take a nap too. Abel was supposed to wake him up." Corrie said. "I don't know what he's up to and it's none of my business but your mom has about had it."

"I'll talk to him and figure this out. Little shit's up to something." Jax said putting his hands on his hips.

"I don't want to stick my nose in his business but something really bad could have happened to Abel today." Corrie said wrapping her arms around Jax's neck.

"I know." He said, wrapping his arms around her. "It won't happen again."

"I should probably get back to Abel. He's ready for his walk." Corrie said quietly.

"He can wait. His dad needs you more." Jax grinned.

"His dad can wait." She playfully nipped at his neck.

"You work tomorrow?" He asked.

"No but I'm at Stockton the day after." She sighed.

"Ha! I knew they couldn't live without you." Jax laughed.

"More like Karina is driving the other doctors crazy and I'm the only one that can keep her in line." Corrie grinned. She broke away from him and turned to leave. He let his hand trail down her arm before he caught her hand.

"Hey," he said quietly. She turned to look at him. "Stay with us tonight."

She nodded her head with a soft smile. She quickly headed out of the Clubhouse before she turned back to do what she really wanted to do to Jax and was met by Lyla in the driveway. An idea instantly flashed in her brain.

"Hey, Doc." Lyla smiled on her way to the bay Opie was working in.

"Hey, Lyla." Corrie smiled. "Can I ask a favor?"

"Sure." Lyla shrugged. "What'chya need?"

"Jax's birthday is coming up soon and I want to surprise him." Corrie explained.  
"And you think I can help you with that?" Lyla asked confused.

"Here's what I'm thinking..." Corrie said putting her arm around the porn star.

*******

Corrie and Abel were splashing each other with soapy water from the sink as they attempted to wash the dishes from dinner. Abel was hyped up on the idea of a sleepover with Corrie which entailed popcorn and a couple of his favorite movies.

Jax stood a safe distance from the hijinx, laughing and loving the banter between Corrie and Abel. His mood somewhat soured when his phone vibrated in his pocket and he saw that his mom was calling.

"Yeah, Ma?" Jax answered. "Abel, if you pour that whole cup of water on her, you're going to be in deep shit."

"What is going on over there?" Gemma asked.

"Abel and Corrie are making a mess in the kitchen. What's up?" He asked, wanting to get to the point quickly.

"Thomas there?" She asked.

"Nope." Jax replied.

"You know where he is?"

"He's not 16 anymore, Ma. You don't have to check up on him." Jax sighed.

"I'm his mother. I will always check up on him...and you." Gemma said.

"Good luck finding him." Jax said.

"Yeah, thanks, shithead." Gemma grinned as she hung up.

She was driving around aimlessly, trying to get ideas about where her youngest son might be. She was scared that he might be getting into some bad shit. After John died and she'd married Clay, Thomas had gone through a really dark time, drinking and doing drugs. Jax had snapped Thomas out of his funk and back into the real world. Gemma hoped that Thomas wasn't back in that place after almost losing Jax.

Gemma decided to turn down the street Corrie and Karina lived on. She stopped short as she spotted Thomas' car parked on the street.


	23. Chapter 23

"Is the kid asleep?" Jax asked when Corrie got back to the living room. Abel had fallen asleep half way through "Finding Nemo" but not before they sat through "Lilo & Stitch."

"Yeah, he's out like a light." Corrie said, settling back down beside him.

"Little shit sure likes you." Jax huffed good-naturedly.

"Aaaaw," Corrie playfully pouted, "don't feel too bad, Dad. You get to put him to bed all the time. It's the first time I've been here to do it."

"If I whine and throw a fit like that, will you put me to bed too?" He arched an eyebrow at her.

"Maybe," she giggled.

"Yeah, you know you will." Jax grinned.

"Somebody sure is full of himself." Corrie scoffed.

"Only when I'm right...which is always so you better get used to it."

"Oh, really? You're so sure that you're right about me putting you to bed?" Corrie challenged him.

"Damn right, I am. You cannot resist me." Jax replied.

"Challenge accepted." Corrie said, folding her arms in front of her.

"You're in for it now." Jax said. He pounced on her and started giving her playful nibbles along her neck.

"You have a lot to learn about turning women on, Teller." Corrie yawned.

Jax lifted his head and arched his eyebrow at her again. "Oh, really?" Okay, he admitted a first he'd just been talking, he didn't think she'd take the challenge seriously. But, if Corrie wanted to play with fire, he'd get her burning.

"Yeah," she threw back at him.

"Alright, darlin, you're asking for it." He promised.

"Oh, give it to me big boy," She said sarcastically and rolled her eyes, a huge smile on her face. She knew she couldn't resist him all night but she'd make him work for it. She didn't get through med-school by getting distracted by every good looking guy who walked by. She knew that if she focused on procedures and images of the gruesome stuff she'd seen, she'd be able to thoroughly frustrate Jax. He had no idea what he was up against.

Jax, for his part, knew he had a way with women. He'd been with enough to know that he was good at his favorite pastime. He wasn't concerned that he'd have Corrie melting in his hands, so to speak, within a few minutes. The first thing he did was change from playful nibbles. He started just under her earlobe: sucking, kissing, nipping. He was an astute lover so it hadn't taken him long to figure out that it drove Corrie wild when he stroked her face, especially his thumb along her cheekbone; so, for good measure he threw that in on top of working her neck.  
Corrie furrowed her brow, concentrating on whatever she could so that she wouldn't let out the moan that was building up in the back of her throat. Jesus, Jax knew almost every button to push on her.

Jax figured she must have been going crazy until she made a show of yawning loudly and checking her watch. He grinned to himself. The little minx was going to play extremely hard to get. Well, he could play that game, too. Sure, he could break her just by sliding his hand under her sweatpants and into her panties. But that would be the easy way to do things. Jax would go there, if he had to, but he was going to shelf that idea as a last resort.

Jax arched his brow at her for the third time in about fifteen minutes, licked his lips, nodded, then took his bottom lip between his teeth. He slipped his hands under her shirt and closed his hands over her tits. To help his cause, he licked along her collarbone. He ran a thumb along her hard nipple and almost ripped his hair out when she didn't react. He pulled her top off and threw her bra across the room. He dropped his head to one nipple and started suckling greedily. He wasn't sure how long he was going to be able to torture her. In his pursuit to break her, he wasn't sure what the damage to himself would be. He was so hard that he was in pain. In fact, the pain was enough to almost bring tears to his eyes. To take his mind off the pain in his pants, he licked the valley between her perfect mounds before taking the other nipple into his mouth. He was almost praying that she was close to the breaking point. As it was, she hadn't made a move or a sound.

Corrie's lips were tightly pinched between her teeth to keep herself from reacting. She was currently running through the process of removing a bullet from a young body, trying everything she could think of not to give herself away. The truth was, she had a fleeting thought that if and when Jax got to the moist ache in her pants, he would drown for sure. But she couldn't let him win. To distract him away from her sensitive tits, she mustered up a bored sigh.

Jax's head shot up from her body. His eyes were conveying frustration. Good, she thought, I'm winning. Jax glared at her before sealing his lips with hers. She kissed him back and opened her mouth to allow his tongue to stroke inside her hot mouth. She focused on the most ugly images she could conjure in her mind to keep herself from letting loose and pushing him back against the couch cushions to bury him deep inside her aching pussy and riding him into oblivion. Jax was fighting the same battle as he pushed her down against the couch and situated himself between her legs. Corrie almost lost it when she felt him pressed against her. He was so hard. To make things more interesting, and to help relieve his aching cock, he ground himself into her, almost ready to beg her to put him out of his misery.  
Corrie had to use every ounce of strength she possessed not to move against him. Her clit was practically screaming at the sensation of rough fabric stimulating it. Jax had one hand cupping her face, the other one bunched her hair up into a loose ponytail. He tugged on it; not hard enough to hurt her but hard enough that their kiss was broken. He'd figured out that she liked her hair forcefully pulled, especially when he was pounding her from behind. He kissed her chin, under her chin, and along her throat.

Corrie placed her fingers on his shoulders and started beating a rhythm on them. The rough fabric against her hard nipples was driving her crazy but she was not going to lose to him.  
Jax growled, grabbed her wrists and forced them above her head. "Surrender." He husked.  
"Never." She had no idea how her voice came out even and normal. She wanted him more than she'd ever wanted anybody in her life.

Jax was about to lose his mind. He was about to rip her pants off and bury his cock inside her. He couldn't help himself. He was going crazy. His thumb skimmed across the underside of Corrie's wrist.

That was her undoing. She wasn't prepared for the sensation of his soft thumb along her wrist. She sucked in a breath and closed her eyes.

"Really?" Jax asked in surprise. He wasn't sure if he'd actually said it out loud and he didn't really care. He started rubbing both thumbs along her wrists.

"Stop," she whispered trying to pull her wrists out of his grip.

He chuckled. "I don't think so, darlin." He brought one wrist up to his mouth. He placed short, delicate kisses along her skin. He was surprised when she shoved him away, a crazed look in her eyes. He watched as she quickly stood up, quickly removing her sweatpants and panties in a deft move. "So, I guess I win."

"Whatever." She sighed as she quickly undid his belt.

"Say it." Jax ordered her, having fun at her expense now.

"Just shut up." She said, undoing his button and zipper. She tugged on his jeans. "Lift your hips." She commanded when he didn't move to help her get his pants off.

"Not until you say it." He grinned.

"Fuck, whatever, you win." She practically shouted. He rewarded her by lifting his hips. She pulled his jeans down to his knees before straddling him. She grabbed his throbbing cock and guided it to her sopping wet slit. Jax threw his head back when she sat against his hips, burying him in her deliciousness. She was so slick and so hot for him that she came hard the second he was inside her.

Jax put his hands on her hips and started slamming into her. Corrie moved frantically against him, her head resting against his shoulder until Jax suddenly stopped. She lifted her head and looked at him confused for a second before he stood up, bringing her with him. He waddled as quickly as he could to his bedroom and kicked the door closed. Corrie heard the front door close a second later. Somehow Jax was cognizant enough to hear Thomas' car door slam in the driveway.

"I guess I'm not doing my job." She whispered against his ear as he set her butt on the edge of the bed, his legs stretched out behind him, his feet braced against the bottom of the wall.  
"You're doing amazing, darlin." He whispered back.

"Not if you can hear car doors." She smiled as he kissed her right under her earlobe.

"It's a honed skill from not wanting to get caught by Gemma." He said. He pulled back to look in her eyes. "You're so amazing."

Corrie lifted her neck to take in his position. "This is very weird." She arched her brow at him.  
Jax grinned at her, intertwined his fingers with hers and pulled her hands above her head before using his position to thrust deep inside her.

"Oh, fuck." Corrie moaned. She threw her head back and wrapped her legs around his waist.  
"Yeah, that's what I thought." He laughed.

"Shut up." she moaned as he moved inside her again.

Jax pulled all the way out before easily gliding back inside her. He repeated the move three or four times before losing his battle and slamming into her. Corrie's fingers tightened on his. Her body arched up to meet his. He was so hard, he wasn't sure he'd actually be able to cum. That was until Corrie's body exploded around his dick, milking him. With one last thrust, he spilled inside her.

After a few minutes, Jax picked his forehead up off hers. "Holy shit."

"Jesus." She agreed.

"Shower?" He asked.

"You bet your ass." She grinned at him.


	24. Chapter 24

"Fuck!" Jax huffed, throwing the wrench in his hand.

"You okay, bro?" Opie asked, arching a brow at his friend.

"I can't fucking concentrate." Jax sighed.

"That's obvious." Opie replied. "Any reason why?"

"I came clean with Corrie about muling drugs for the cartel when she stayed two nights ago." Jax leaned against the workbench.

"Damn. She didn't take it well?" Opie asked.

"She took it fine...I think. I just haven't been able to talk to her much." Jax said. "She's working up in Stockton today and then St. Thomas tomorrow. I won't get to see her until tomorrow night. It's driving me crazy not knowing if she's okay with this."

"Dude, it's Corrie. She didn't have a problem with you being in prison for running guns. I really doubt she has a problem with this. Did you explain it was to return a favor for protection on the inside?" Opie asked. Jax nodded. "What did she say?"

"That they didn't do a very good job protecting me." Jax smirked. "But she was okay with that because then we wouldn't have met."

"See? You're overreacting. She's fine with it. Stop being a pussy." Opie laughed.

"Yeah." Jax grinned and nodded as he followed his best-friend towards the Clubhouse.  
*******  
"What the hell are you watching?" Tig scoffed at Filthy Phil as a biker "reality" show played on the tv above the bar in the Clubhouse.

Phil shrugged. "I love this show."

"Lyla watches this shit all the time. It's about some stupid MC in San Diego that's at war with a fake MC." Opie sighed.

"Sounds like us." Jax said sarcastically.

"Yeah," Opie chuckled. "Anybody know where Clay is? He was supposed to meet with the Devil's of Mercy's president last night. I want to know how it went."

It was Tig's turn to chuckle. "Yeah," He scratched his eyebrow. "It didn't go so well."

"Not surprising," Piney grumbled.

"Clay tried telling them nicely that they'd stepped on toes and needed to stay clear of Charming." Tig shrugged.

"How'd they react to that?" Jax said tossing his beer top at Phil.

"Ah, well," Tig grinned, "Happy had to explain to them, in vivid detail, about what would happen to them if they didn't take Clay's offer to leave quietly."

"It was beautiful." Happy said before taking a swig of beer.

"I bet." Opie chuckled.

"Fuckin' idiots said that we'd be seeing them around. I can't wait." Happy said, his eyes shining with anticipation.

Jax shook his head and lit a cigarette. "Wonderful. All we need is another war."

"Let's take our cue from these guys." Opie hitched his thumb at the tv over the bar. "I bet they could teach us how to win a war."

Three hours later, most of the Club was immersed in the "reality" tv show, not really knowing how much time had passed. Phil threw a handful of popcorn at the screen when the words BREAKING NEWS cut across the screen. Everybody in the bar started yelling and griping.  
"We have breaking news coming out of Stockton State Prison." The female anchor announced.

"Shhh!" Jax hissed, holding up his hand. "Everybody shut the hell up! Phil, turn that up!"

"Our own Matt Marquez is on the scene. Matt, what can you tell us?" The female anchor asked.

"Thank you, Linda. I'm standing outside Stockton State Prison..." the male anchor began.

"No shit!" Tig yelled at the tv. "Tell us what's going on!"

"Where one whole wing of the prison has been put into lock-down at this time. Officials aren't saying why the east wing of the prison has been locked-down but sources close to the situation are telling me that a staff member was attacked just a short time ago." The male anchor said.

"Jesus," Jax sighed quietly. "That's the wing with medical in it." Opie clapped a hand on his best-friend's shoulder.

"Now, as you can see behind me," Matt Marquez continued, pointing to the entrance of the prison, "there is an ambulance on scene. We don't know at this time the condition of the staff member or what kind of injuries may have been sustained in this attack."

Jax pulled out his cell phone and quickly dialed Corrie's cell phone number. "Damnit!" he shouted when she didn't answer.

"Thank you, Matt. We'll continue to update you on this story as it becomes available." The female anchor said. With that, the tv tuned back into the reality show that had been playing before.

"She can't have her cell phone on her in the prison." Opie said calmly, trying to get his best-friend to calm down.

Jax didn't respond, instead punching another number into his phone. "Karina! Do you know what's going on at the prison?...Shit! I was hoping you knew what had happened...Yeah, okay...bye." Jax flipped his phone closed. "They won't tell her anything."

"The east wing is a big wing." Bobby said. "Could have happened anywhere. Most attacks are on guards and happen in the pods. You were in medical enough to know that it would be damn near impossible for anybody to attack medical staff."

Jax nodded, placing a hand on his head, not sure where to go or what to do. Everything Bobby said had made sense but it didn't ease the fear in his heart. He knew that something had happened in the medical ward. He didn't know how he knew it but he just knew it. He knew that Corrie was in trouble.  
*******

"We need to get him out of here." Corrie said quietly to Monty as blood seeped between her fingers.

"We're working on it." Monty replied. "EMS is on scene."

"They aren't doing us a bit of good just standing around with their thumbs up their asses!" Corrie snarled.

"Calm the fuck down." Monty replied calmly, his deep voice easing the panic rising in Corrie.

"I'm sorry! But if we don't get him out of here soon, he will die." Corrie whispered.

"He's too much of a hard ass to die." Monty said.

Corrie nodded and sighed. "I hope you're right."

"How's your arm?" Monty asked.

Corrie looked at the deep cut on her forearm. "It hurts like a motherfucker."

"You can get it stitched at the hospital." Monty replied.

"Nah, I know a guy. I just want to go home." Corrie sighed.

"EMS is here!" Another guard called.

"Thank God!" Corrie sighed.  
*******

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Jax yelled as the words "Breaking News" flashed across the screen again fifteen minutes later.

"We're following breaking news out of Stockton State Prison. Matt Marquez is on the scene. Matt, what have you learned?" The same female anchor said.

"Yeah, Linda. As you can see, the ambulance has left the scene." The picture cut away to film of EMS loading a patient into an ambulance. Cheers went up when they saw Corrie hurrying alongside the gurney. "A staff member speaking anonymously has told me that the attack that prompted the prison to lock-down the east wing took place in the infirmary. A patient was somehow able to sneak a homemade weapon into the infirmary or another individual delivered the weapon to the patient. We don't know what motivated the attack. As we reported earlier, a source said that the attack was on an employee of the prison. We don't know the condition of the victim at this time. Back to you, Linda." 

"She's okay, Jackie." Chibs grinned, clapping a hand on the VP's shoulder.

"Yeah," Jax nodded, grinning. He wanted to see for himself. He still had the feeling that something bad had happened to Corrie. Sure, she looked fine on tv, walking swiftly beside the gurney. But, the camera hadn't been close enough to see if she had injuries. And, just seeing her on the screen hadn't told him how she was emotionally. The attack had been in the medical ward. One of her colleagues had been attacked; it wouldn't be easy for her to deal with.  
*******

Corrie stretched as she exited her car. She knew that she was a mess-half-assed bandage on the cut on her arm, blood caked on her face from a cut on her cheek bone, blood drenched scrubs, dried blood covering her hands-but she didn't care. She just wanted Chibs to take care of the cut on her arm and then take a nice, hot shower. She also knew that once she told Jax everything that happened at the prison, the somewhat calm back and forth between the Sons and the Devils of Mercy would be shattered. All hell would rain down on the Devils until they were wiped off the map.

"Jesus, baby, are you okay?" Gemma asked as she hopped off the picnic table where she'd been smoking.

"Yeah," Corrie sighed and nodded.

"Jax has been worried sick about you." Gemma hugged Corrie. Corrie fought to hold back tears as Gemma led her by the hand into the Clubhouse. "Look what I found in the parking lot." Gemma announced.

"Jesus," Jax huffed as he pulled Corrie into a crushing hug. "Are you okay?" He pulled back and brushed some hair away from her face.

"I need Chibs to look at my arm." Corrie said quietly holding up her bandaged right arm.

"Of course, Lovey. Honored you asked." Chibs said, heading to a back room to get his medical supplies.

"You should have a doctor look at that." Jax said quietly, still holding Corrie's face in his hands.   
He kissed her over and over, quickly.

"I just want to be here." Corrie whispered as tears pooled in her eyes.

"What happened?" Jax asked. "We heard a little on the news but..." he trailed off.

"It was supposed to be me, Jax." She said as a tear slid down her cheek.

"What do you mean, babe?" He asked.

"I was talking to Dr. Lawson; filling him in for his shift. The guy just stood up and stabbed him in the neck." Corrie said as Chibs handed her a bottle of Patron.

"You're gonna want this to numb the pain." Chibs said.

"That doesn't mean it was meant for you." Jax tried to assure her.

"No. He said 'Tell the Sons that the Devils are everywhere.' And then he must have realized that he hit the wrong person because he came after me. Monty got him under control right after that." Corrie said.

"Shit," Jax huffed. He turned slightly to the room. "Happy!" He called.

"Yeah?" Happy strolled up to the three of them.

Jax looked back at Corrie and turned her head slightly to show Happy the cut on her cheek. "We kill them all." He snarled. Happy angrily nodded.  
*******

Jax checked on Corrie one final time, quietly shutting the bedroom door. He was surprised that Corrie had fallen asleep so quickly after everything that had happened. He guessed part of it was that she'd found out that Dr. Lawson was still alive at the hospital in Stockton. Another part of it was probably the long drive back to Charming which she had appeared to make purely on adrenaline.

"Call me if she wakes up." Jax ordered Thomas.

"You got it, boss." Thomas replied grimly. "I wish you'd let me go with you. Corrie's my friend, too."

"This is Club business, Tommy." Jax shook his head. "This time you have to stay here."

"Fine. And don't call me 'Tommy.'" Thomas sighed.

"Besides, who else would I trust my kid and my ol' lady to?" Jax smiled.

Thomas shook his head as Jax closed the front door. His brother was in it, deep.

"What's the play?" Clay asked.

Jax kicked his leg over his bike and put his helmet on. "These bastards want a war? We give them a war." Jax growled as he started his bike and led the group of bikers out of his driveway.


	25. Chapter 25

Jax smirked as he stepped out of the shower the next morning to find a steaming cup of coffee on the bathroom counter. After the night he'd had, he was going to need a lot of coffee to get through the day. His heart felt warm and light at the same time knowing that he finally had a woman who took care of him when he needed it without a lot of questions. Granted, Tara would have brought him a cup of coffee while he was in the shower. Only, Tara would have been leaning against the counter, a cup of coffee in her own hands, waiting for him to finish. Then, when he got out of the shower, she would have started in with the questions: Why didn't you come home last night? What did you do? Who were you with? Corrie didn't pressure him into talking about something he didn't want to talk about. She waited for him to start the conversation and he appreciated that more than she (or even he, for that matter) knew. He'd just walked through the door not more than half an hour ago and was almost dead on his feet. He didn't want to rehash the last 18 hours even if Corrie had been the catalyst for the events that had kept him out all night.

After throwing on some clothes, Jax went out into the kitchen. "How's the arm?" He asked, dropping a kiss on Corrie's head. She was leaning against a kitchen counter, drinking coffee and making faces at Abel has he ate breakfast.

"Meh," she said noncommittally and shrugged. "I took some pain meds so it's not too bad right now. Missed you last night."

"I wish I could have been here to take care of you but-"

"It doesn't matter." Corrie cut him off. "You had other things to do and I understand that. You should probably try to get some sleep."

"I gotta get to work." He said, wishing for nothing more than to crawl between the sheets, snuggle up with her, and fall blissfully asleep. He didn't want to tell her that by work, he didn't mean a shift at TM. He meant he had to help Happy clean up the brutality that was exacted on the Devil of Mercy's President for the past 18 hours. Of course, Jax hadn't minded the brutality any. It was a necessary evil to send a message to the Devil's and to make sure Corrie was safe. It had been worth it to get the name of the shithead that had hurt Corrie. Jax would pass that info along to Otto. Otto had admitted to Jax that, while Otto had given Corrie a rough go of it at first, the inmate had come to respect the willful doctor when she lit into him for fighting. Otto had sent word to the Sons that he was not happy when he heard that his favorite doctor had been injured and Otto was willing to exact revenge. The brutality had also been worth it to get the President's word that the Devil's were done showing their faces in Charming.

"Well, that sucks." Corrie sighed. "You've gotta be tired as hell."

"Trust me, babe, it was all worth it." Jax smirked.

"Good." Corrie smirked back at him.

"What are you doing today?" Jax asked, taking another sip of coffee and wrapping his arm around her shoulders to hug her closer to his side.

"Abel and I are going to the hospital to talk to my boss, Dr. Anderson. He's insisting that I take off until my stitches come out so I have to sign some leave papers. He, also, wants to make sure that I'm okay mentally. Then, we'll go for our walk." Corrie said.

"Where's Thomas?" Jax frowned. "He should watch Abel while you run to work."

Corrie shrugged. "I heard him leave not long after you did last night. I guess he never came home."

"Of course," Jax huffed, nodding his head and looking at the ceiling.

Corrie laid a hand on his chest. "It's not a big deal. I don't mind bringing Abel with me."

"I know but I'm getting a little tired of my brother disappearing all the time with nobody knowing where he's going or what he's doing." Jax said.

"Yes, Gemma." Corrie replied.

"Ha ha," Jax grumped, placing a kiss to her head. "I'll be home as soon as I can."  
*******

"I want him punished." Thomas huffed, stubbing out his cigarette in the overflowing tray.

"Your brother and his crew put a pretty good hurtin' on him already, ese. Heard his crew brought him to the hospital early this morning, all bruised and cut up. Sounds like your brother had Happy talk to him." Marcus Alvarez smirked.

"I don't give a shit what my brother did to him. I want him dead." Thomas growled.

"You got a thing for the doctor, too?" Marcus asked, his amused smirk safely fixed on his mouth.  
"Nah, man. I got my own piece." Thomas shrugged.

"Then why the need for vengeance?" The Mayan President asked.

"Corrie is the best thing to happen to my nephew. She's the best mother he's ever had. If anybody tries to take her out of his life, they have to go through me...and you know how that works." Thomas grinned.

"Yeah, I know how that works." Marcus replied.  
*******

"You should just get his crow or something." Lyla said over the phone later that day.

"His crow? What does that mean?" Corrie asked.

"You know, the crow on my arm? It's the crow all old ladies have. It shows that you're dedicated to your man." Lyla explained.

"Can't you do that just by marrying the guy instead of getting a tattoo?" Corrie asked. "Not that Jax and I are ready to get married."

"Being somebody's old lady is more than being their wife. It means you're dedicated to the man and the life." Lyla said.

"That's...great...but I don't think Jax and I are ready for that." Corrie said. "I promise this won't take long, Lyla. I'll get Opie and Piney to help me."

"It's just that if Jax leaves early or finds out-"

"He won't. I promise." Corrie replied. "Clay's already taking care of that part for me."

"That part I'm not too worried about." Lyla said. "It's the cut part that scares me. They don't take those off for anything and they certainly don't go into the Clubhouse without taking them off."

"Lyla, I got it taken care of. Just trust me, okay?" Corrie pleaded.

"Only because you're Opie's best-friend's old lady. If you were anybody else, I'd say no." Lyla giggled.

"Thank you!" Corrie exclaimed. "I promise, Lyla, Jax is going to thank you too once this is done. It's going to be the best birthday ever...shit, Jax is home, I'll talk to you later." Corrie said and quickly hung up the phone.

"Hey," Jax said as he came in the door. "Still no Thomas?"

"He left about 20 minutes ago. Said he had a date." Corrie said. "I had him take Abel to your mom's."

"Oh yeah?" Jax quirked his eyebrow at her.

"You can stop those dirty thoughts right now, mister. You are going to bed." Corrie said.

"Interesting since my dirty thoughts included the bedroom." He grinned.

"To sleep." Corrie mock glared at him.

"You're no fun." Jax pouted.

"I am tons of fun and you know it." Corrie said.

"Yes you are and yes I do." Jax said.

"You need to get some sleep though or you're going to be no good to me." Corrie said getting up and leading him to the bedroom.

"I could use some sleep." Jax yawned. Once in the bedroom he undressed to his boxers. Corrie was in a cami and gym shorts when she came out of the bathroom. "You don't have to lay here with me, darlin...if you're not tired."

"I didn't sleep very well last night. I could use some shut eye myself." Corrie said. They snuggled together and fell into a peaceful sleep.

*******

Otto made quick work of the remaining buckle on his wrist. He gripped the scalpel the guard had pushed into his hand before freeing one hand. "You wanna go after my VP's ol lady?" Otto growled into the ear of the man who'd hurt Corrie. Otto pushed the tip of the scalpel into the flesh of the man's wrist, making sure he severed the artery in the man's wrist. "Have fun in hell, fuckface." Otto grinned as he repeated the action on the other wrist. Otto quickly squeezed the man's fingers around the scalpel's handle before buckling one wrist back into his bed's restraints. The guard quickly reappeared and buckled the other wrist back down before disappearing.  
*******

Corrie groaned and reached for her phone. It was 10 pm; her and Jax had been asleep for three hours. "Yeah?" She answered.

"Incident Notification." A guard said automatically.

Corrie sighed. Sadly, she was used to getting these calls. "Go ahead."

"Inmate Joseph Abearez committed suicide in the Infirmary at 2114 hours." The guard replied.

"How?" Corrie gasped, sitting up. The inmate who'd almost killed Dr. Lawson had committed suicide?

"Cut his wrists with a scalpel, I guess." The guard said.

"Why wasn't he strapped down?" Corrie asked.

"He was." The guard said. "Stockton Response Team is investigating." The guard disconnected.

"Everything okay?" Jax mumbled.

"Yeah...uh, the guy who attacked Dr. Lawson committed suicide about 45 minutes ago." Corrie said, looking at her phone. She placed it back on the bedside table and snuggled her back against Jax's chest. He wrapped his arm around her abdomen and pulled her closer. She intertwined her fingers with his, trying not to dwell on the news she'd just gotten.

"Good." Jax said quietly against her ear.

*******

"What?" Jax grumped into his phone an hour later.

"Hey, VP, I'm at St. Thomas." Opie said.

"Why? Is everything okay?" Jax demanded, sitting up.

"Roosevelt told Unser that Pedro Marquez died from injuries he received in a 'motorcycle accident.'" Opie said.

"Motorcycle accident?" Jax shook his head, trying to understand. "He wasn't in a motorcycle accident."

"Yeah, well, I guess that's what his buddies used as an excuse to explain his injuries. Nobody really asked any questions. I guess Roosevelt heard it from the medical examiner." Opie explained.

"Ope, you and I both know his injuries were not life threatening." Jax replied.

"Yeah, we do know that. Means, somebody else wanted that asshole dead." Opie said. "Doesn't really matter, anyway. His crew moves on and they leave Charming."

"Yeah...I guess." Jax said. "Thanks for letting me know, man."

"Sure." Opie said before hanging up.

"You okay?" It was Corrie's turn to mumble.

"Yeah." Jax said. "Just...weird news." He snuggled her back against his chest.

"You wanna talk about it?" She asked.

"In the morning." he sighed before drifting off again.


	26. Chapter 26

"About last night..." Jax said as he stood in his oddly empty kitchen the next morning. Thomas had taken Abel out for breakfast.

"We don't have to talk about it." Corrie smiled at him, looking up from the paper.

"No, I need you to hear this from me." Jax said. He was leaning against the sink. He had gotten used to telling telling the women in his life about the bad shit he did. He had also got used to a disgusted sigh and a nod. He wasn't used to Corrie taking things in stride. So, he steeled himself against what he expected her reaction to be to this latest tale of brutality.

"Okay," she shrugged, pushing the paper to the side so he had her full attention.

"Last night, the phone call I got was from Opie. He was at St. Thomas and he heard that the President of the Devil's of Mercy had died in a motorcycle accident." Jax said.

"And you had Otto whack the guy that attacked me." It wasn't a question. "I'm not stupid, Jax. I knew that what happened last night was because of what happened to Dr. Lawson."

Jax scoffed. "Had nothin' to do with Dr. Lawson, darlin, and you know it."

"Well, whatever." Corrie said. "I knew because of the message they sent you that you'd get revenge."

"Babe," Jax said, getting frustrated with her, "this wasn't about the message. It was about you. Nobody lays a hand on you without consequences."

"I appreciate that, Jax...I do...but, I really don't want guys dying because of it." Corrie said.

"Only one guy was supposed to die last night. Happy and I messed up the President; made him realize what staying in Charming would cost him. When we left him, he was alive. It was nothing that a few days in the hospital couldn't fix. I don't know what happened but it wasn't us." Jax said.

"Who else would want him dead?" Corrie asked. Jax looked at her, eyes wide. It slammed into him that she may not believe him. Corrie read it on his face immediately. "No! If you say it wasn't you, then it wasn't you. A lot of shit can go wrong. I'll poke around when I get back to work and see what I can find out."

"Thanks, babe." Jax sighed, glad that Corrie believed him.

Corrie stood up, grinning, her bottom lip in between her teeth. She walked up to Jax and put a hand on his chest. "We have the whole house to ourselves." She pointed out, the grin never leaving her lips. Jax silently placed his coffee cup on the counter, a grin spreading across his own face. She grabbed his hand and walked backwards, leading him to the bedroom.

*******

"Hey," Thomas said a few hours later. Corrie and Abel had taken off for their walk a few minutes earlier. "Let's go get some lunch."

"I don't know if I'll have time, we have to try to figure out how the Prez of the Devil's died." Jax sighed.

"Oh, come on. Let your little brother take you out to lunch." Thomas insisted.

"Yeah, okay." Jax nodded.

Gemma walked in. "Oooh, baby, your bottom rocker back here is a mess!" She said to Jax.  
"What?" Jax asked trying to see. "It is?" He turned a circle trying to see his bottom rocker.

"You should just let me take it and fix it." Gemma said.

"Ma, I have to go to the Clubhouse after lunch. I can't show up without my cut." Jax huffed.

"So, don't go into the Clubhouse." Gemma shrugged. Jax shot her a look. "Fine. If you want to go into the Clubhouse with a cut that looks like shit, be my guest."

"Fine. Fine, fine, fine." Jax said pulling off his cut and shoving it into his mother's hands. He knew when he was fighting a losing battle.

*******

"Hey, Jackie Boy, we meetin or what?" Chibs asked an hour and a half later.

"Uh...can we just meet out here? I can't go into the Clubhouse." Jax said trying to hide his embarrassment.

"Why?" Clay asked.

"Your wife decided that my bottom rocker needed to be fixed so she took my cut." Jax shook his head. It sounded stupid, especially to him.

"Yeah, you know how your mother can be." Clay said slapping a hand on Jax's shoulder. Jax didn't miss the look Clay sent to Piney and Opie who were smoking by the tow truck. "I'll wave the rule for you this one time. We got important business to discuss." Clay wrapped an arm around Jax and led him towards the Clubhouse. If Jax didn't know any better he would have sworn that Clay shot Opie and Piney a thumbs up.

When he walked out of the Clubhouse a few hours later, he was happy to see Corrie waiting for him but he also felt like he was going insane.

"You okay?" Corrie asked, as she placed a hand on his chest.

"Yeah," He kissed her quickly. "But I could have sworn I parked my bike closer to the Clubhouse."

Corrie shrugged as a nervous look darted across her face. "Ya must be losin it in your old age."

"Ha ha." He replied. "We're having my party tonight since some of the guys are goin' on a run tomorrow."

"That's fine. At least I have on present to give you tonight in case the other ones don't come through tonight." Corrie said.

"Oh yeah? What're you giving me?" Jax asked, licking his lips and rubbing his hands together.

"You'll just have to wait and see." Corrie replied. "But, trust me, you'll like it."

"I have no doubt, babe." Jax said throwing his arm around her shoulders.

*******

The party was in full swing at 1 am on April 10. Jax was having a difficult time trying to keep his hands off Corrie. Her hair was curled and pulled up. She was wearing a body hugging black dress and black pumps. She also had on a hint of makeup which made him want to take her back to his dorm room for a quickie. So far, he'd been unsuccessful in his attempt to convince her to follow him back there. Of course, every time she turned him down, the look on her face held a promise that he would get what he wanted when they got home.

"Good woman you got there." Clay said, his teeth clamped on a cigar.

Jax's gaze found Corrie laughing and talking with Gemma and Lyla. "Yeah." He agreed.

"I'm happy for you. She's got a good head on her shoulders; makes a great old lady and mother to Abel." Clay pointed out.

"Thanks, man." Jax said. "She's the best ol lady I've had."

"I know I'm usually the one to warn you about pussy clouding your judgment and all that shit but in the past couple of days, your ol lady has proven herself." Clay nodded.

"Proven herself how?" Jax asked. There hadn't been anything in the past couple of days that he could think of that would have Corrie getting Clay's approval. Not even how she handled the attack at the prison. Clay was suspicious of every woman Jax had had a relationship with.

"Oh, you'll see," was all Clay said before walking away.

"That looked cozy." Thomas said, joining his brother for a drink.

"Yeah," Jax huffed. "Clay telling me I've got a good ol lady who's proven herself in the past couple of days but wouldn't tell me how."

"He's probably just messing with your head." Thomas replied. "You know how he loves to do that."

"If he tries anything to test her, I'll fucking gut him." Jax snarled.

"Dude, it's your birthday. Don't let that shithead get to you. You need to celebrate and have fun. It's not everyday you turn 40." Thomas grinned.

"You're such an asshole." Jax replied.

"That's why you love me." Thomas said.

"I guess." Jax agreed. His heart about stopped when he saw Tara saunter up to Corrie. "What the fuck is she doing here?"

"I might've mentioned that we were having a party for you and she might've asked to come." Thomas answered sheepishly.

"You're too easy when it comes to pussy." Jax said, taking a slug from his beer.

"Hey! Don't talk about her like that. She was more to you than just pussy and you know it. And, she's not pussy to me. That'd be like sleeping with Trinity!" Thomas said, not knowing that Jax had almost done that very thing.

"Yeah..." Jax trailed off. He left his brother to go see what his current love and his former love were talking about.

*******  
"Hi, Dr. Sam...uh, I mean Corrie." Tara said.  
"Oh, hi, Tara." Corrie smiled back. Lyla and Gemma stood nearby, neither of them wanting to miss what Tara had to say to Jax's girlfriend.

Tara shot a guarded look at Gemma, making sure that she wasn't about to pounce. "How's Abel?"

"He's great. Just a little bundle of energy." Corrie smiled. She didn't want this to be awkward but it so was.

"Good! I'm glad to hear that. I miss seeing him." Tara said.

"Soooo..." Corrie said, not sure where to take the conversation. She didn't want to tell Tara that Abel never even asked about her.

"Big party for Jax." Tara said looking around.

"Yeah, they decided to have it tonight since some of the guys are going on a run tomorrow." Corrie nodded.

"That's one thing I don't miss!" Tara laughed lightly. "I always hated it when Jax had to go on runs. It was the never knowing if he'd come back in one piece."

"He's not going on this one." Corrie replied.

"Oh, that's nice." Tara said. "Get some at home time with Abel."

"Yeah, he doesn't miss much time with Abel." Corrie said.

"That's good. Um...look, I just wanted to say that I'm glad you're making Jax happy. I mean, honestly, I wish it were me but I blew my chance. Jax is really hard on himself and puts a lot of guilt on his shoulders he doesn't deserve. I'm glad that you're able to help lighten that burden. You just know that he's really bad with words and expressing his feelings. I mean, really bad. Don't get me wrong, it was romantic to hear that he thought about me a lot during our 10 years apart before we got back together but he could have expressed it better. I mean, hearing that the man you love has slept with hundreds of women, maybe more, but he only saw your face the whole time doesn't really make much sense." Tara smiled.

"I've noticed that about him...except for the sleeping with women and seeing my face thing." 

Corrie chuckled. "Thanks, Tara. I'll help him as much as I can."

"Everything okay?" Jax asked once Tara had joined Thomas near the bonfire.

"Yeah...Yeah, everything's fine." Corrie said, her eyes following Tara. "Babe, just do me a favor?"

"Anything," Jax replied.

"Don't ever tell me that you see my face when banging another women...or hundred." Corrie said.

Jax frowned at her. "There is only one face I'll see when I'm banging a chick because there's only one chick I plan on banging."

"That was...kind of romantic...I think." Corrie smiled. "You ready to go home?"

"I guess," Jax shrugged.

"Well, let me put it this way. This underwear is uncomfortable as fuck and I've been suffering since 10. If you want to stay, we can stay, but I'm going into your room and throwing these things into the garbage. If you want to see me in them, we should go home." She said.  
"Let's go home." Jax grinned.


	27. Chapter 27

Jax barely noticed the kitchen chair sitting in his bedroom. He was too eager to literally slip into his birthday gift. Sure, women had given themselves to him as his birthday present before but he'd never been so eager to receive that gift as he was tonight. It was different because it was Corrie and he loved her. The thought didn't have time to register with him though because she was ordering him to sit in the chair. Jax sat down with a smug smirk on his face. Okay, she was going to give him a lap dance. Again, not a gift he hadn't received before. He could just ask a Croweater to give him one or go to a strip club. But, also, again, it was different because it was Corrie. Jax rubbed his hands together, wanting things to get started.

"I don't know what you're so excited about." Corrie said from behind him.

"You jut get me excited, darlin." Jax grinned.

"That's nice to hear," Corrie said huskily, "but you're not going to like this much at first."

"Why's that?" Jax smiled. "You gonna whip me?"

"Nah," Corrie said, stepping in front of him. His jaw almost hit the floor. She was standing in front of him wearing a safety orange bra and panty set. He reached for her and frowned when she slapped his hands away.

"I know you're used to getting sex on your birthday." Corrie smiled at him. "Don't worry, you won't miss out this year. However, we're going to do things differently tonight."

"What do you mean by different, babe? 'Cause I can handle a lot of things but there are some things that even I have to turn down." Jax said, feeling a little nervous. It didn't do anything to ease his racing thoughts when she chuckled.

"I promise it won't be anything you're not comfortable with. It's just that you have a problem trusting yourself and you have a problem trusting me." Corrie said.

"I trust you completely, babe." Jax said earnestly, his face serious.

"I know you trust me to an extent. But, you have to be in control when we're in bed. You let me on top somtimes, but you always have to guide me or flip me over on my back to make me cum first. You don't trust me enough to give me control. So tonight, you're putting all control in my hands." Corrie said.

"I have no problem with that." Jax said. "I thought you said I wasn't going to like this."

"The rules-" she started.

"Rules?" Jax asked surprised.

"Yes, the rules are that you cannot touch me." Corrie said. "I have ways to ensure that you aren't able to move your arms but I'm not going to do that right now. I want to give you the chance to show me that you trust me enough and that you trust yourself enough to let go."

"Okay," Jax nodded. He wanted to protest. He wanted to yell at Corrie that he trusted her with his whole heart and soul. But he could see in her eyes that this was important to her and that's what made him agree.

"Good boy." Corrie smirked. She knew he'd be putty in her hands. She hit play on her iPod that was housed in the docking station. She had it queued up before she left. When the music started playing, she positioned herself in between Jax's knees, pushing them apart to give her room to maneuver.

Jax threw his head back as Corrie expertly moved her hips to the music, her ass pressing into his rapidly hardening cock. He bit his bottom lip and grabbed the rungs attached the chair legs. This not touching Corrie thing was getting harder than he imagined and she'd barely started yet.  
He grunted in frustration as she rubbed herself against him. He wanted her stop but he wanted her to keep going at the same time. It was pure, sweet torture. Corrie turned around, pushing his legs together so she could straddle him. She pushed her chest against his, giving him an evil smirk as she continued to move her hips. Jax was surprised he didn't break the chair, he was gripping the rungs so tight.

"Stand up, take off your clothes." She ordered, kicking off him and standing up. Jax had never been so eager to obey an order in his life. He quickly shed his clothes, Corrie watching him the whole time, her hands on her hips. When he was naked, she tipped her chin towards the bed. "Lay down." Jax crawled on the bed and law on his back, his hands under his head. Corrie snuffed at him. "Look at you, gettin all comfortable."

"It's my birthday and you won't let me touch you." Jax shrugged. He wasn't about to tell her that his hands were itching to touch her and his mouth was watering to taste her.  
Corrie reached behind her back and undid the clasp of her bright orange bra. Her arms crossed in front of her, she slowly pulled the straps down her arms. Her slow pace was driving Jax crazy. When she finally let the bra fall down her forearms and slip onto the floor, he lurched a little bit. He wanted to sit up and grab for her. He wanted to suck on her perfect tits. He wanted make her scream his name. But, she had some misguided idea that he didn't trust her so he was going to make her see that she was wrong.

Corrie got on the bed near his feet and seductively crawled up to his hips. Corrie stopped long enough to run the tip of her tongue along his erection. She swung a leg over him. He could feel her hot, wetness through her panties. The lacey fabric was rough against his smooth, hard cock. He grunted.

Corrie rested her ass just above the head of his member and brought her feet up by his head. She raised herself up and slowly slipped her panties off her toned legs. She lightly pulled the wet panties in front of his nose. He closed his eyes in frustrated when her scent hit his nostrils.  
Jax licked his lips as she took him in her hand and guided him to her slick opening. She slowly slid herself down until he was all the way inside. His hands automatically went to grab her hips but she slapped his hands away. He settled for fisting the comforter in his hands to control himself.

"Don't move your hips." She commanded. She intertwined her fingers with his and pinned his hands above his head. She ground herself against him. She switched her pace from fast and hard, to slow circles. Jax could have easily overpowered her. He could easily flip them over and pounded it her until they both came.

"Don't even think about it." Corrie snarled against his ear, knowing that look in Jax's eyes. She lifted herself until he almost fell out of her. Then she slammed herself back onto him. She started moving wildly, with abandoned. Jax had never cum before a woman before. It was how he got and kept his reputation with the fairer sex in Charming. But, he couldn't help himself. The way she was moving and the noises she was making, he lost it. Embarrassed, he exploded inside her. Corrie guided one of his hands to her sensitive clit and started rubbing herself against his fingers. Finally, she clenched around him and screamed his name.

*******

The rumble of motorcycles drew Thomas' attention. Without warning, shots rang out. People were screaming and diving for the ground. MC Members were quickly returning fire. Once it was quiet, Thomas pulled out his cell phone.

"Yeah?" the man answered on the other end.

"Devils shot up my brother's birthday party." Thomas ground out.

"So? What do you want me to do about it?" The guy replied.

"Don't forget who the fuck you're talking to. Devil's of Mercy just tried to kill my family. You take care of them or you know what happens to you." Thomas growled.

"I'm sorry. You're right. I'll have my crew take care of it."

"Damn right, Laroy." Thomas said before hanging up.

*******

Jax lay with Corrie in his arms. He couldn't sleep. He felt closer to her now than he had with any woman he'd ever been with. He was shocked that she had known him so well that she had been right about him. He hadn't been able to give up control to any woman so completely before. He had been scared that if he let a woman be in control, he would lose himself to her. It was his biggest fear. He'd almost given up everything that was important to him when Tara had asked him to go with her to Chicago. He never wanted to feel that kind of pain again so he shut himself off and made sure that he was always in control. He couldn't trust himself.

Now? It was all brand new. He'd given up control, he'd let himself be vulnerable. And he didn't feel the crushing sense of self-loss he thought he would. He felt free. Freer to love the woman in his arms. Freer than he had in a very long time.

Hours later, Corrie stretched against Jax when she heard the front door close. Her other birthday present to Jax had arrived. She nuzzled his neck

"Wake up." She whispered. He groaned with a smile. "The second half of your present is here."  
Jax cracked open an eye and arched an eyebrow. "I got an amazing present last night."

"Yeah, me too. But I really did get you something."

They both quickly dressed and went out to the kitchen. There was a thin black box sitting on the table. Jax looked at Corrie.

"Open it," she said.

Jax sat down and lifted the lid off the box. There was a smooth, black scrapbook inside with "Teller" imprinted on the front in silver letters. He lifted the book out of it's box. It was heavier than he expected it to be. The whole book was filled.

"Babe," Jax said in awe as he opened the cover. There was a beautiful black and white picture of his bike against a white background. There were pictures of his bike in color, all beautifully simple, letting the bike do the talking. He was silent as he flipped the pages. "How did you get these?"

"Remember the day you thought you were losing your mind?" Corrie grinned.

"Yeah, I thought my bike moved." Jax nodded.

"It did." Corrie giggled. "I had Ope and Piney tow your bike. When they got back, somebody was in your spot."

Jax nodded, too in awe to speak. He hit a blank baby blue page that said "Family" on it. He slowly flipped the page, half expecting to see a message from Corrie telling him she was pregnant. He hadn't realized just how much he wanted that until he didn't get it. But the picture immediately pushed the thoughts out of his head. ]This picture was of Abel in the park, feeding the ducks. Corrie was standing a ways behind him. She was really blurry but he could tell it was her. There were pictures of her and Abel doing all sorts of things, like playing in the park and on their daily walks. There were even pictures of him on the few rare occurrences he had joined them.

"How did you get these?" He asked again as he flipped pages, loving every picture and loving Corrie more with each flip of the page. He arched his brow when he reached a black page that said "For You Only."

Jax was struck stupid. Corrie smiled back at him from the page. She straddling his bike, with nothing on but white panites and his cut. It was one of the most beautiful pictures he'd ever seen. Jax took his time, drinking in every picture of her. She was posed seductively on his bike or standing against the white backdrop. He could see the sides of her breasts but the his cut always covered the good parts.

"This is amazing, babe." He said when he was done looking at the pictures.

"I'm glad you like it. I wanted to give you something unique." She said.

"Whoever took these pictures is going to have to die for seeing you like that, though." Jax said.

"You cannot kill Lyla. Opie needs her." Corrie said, kissing his forehead.

"I didn't know Lyla took pictures." Jax said.

"She wants to become a photographer." Corrie said. "I had a little help boosting your bike and cut, obviously."

"I thought it was weird that my mom wanted to fix my cut." He said.

"All for a good cause." She said.

"Yes it was." He agreed.


	28. Chapter 28

Jax groaned. "Why are you moving around so much?" He grumped.

"I go back to work today!" Corrie said cheerily.

"So? Come back to bed." Jax grumbled. Corrie smiled at him even though he couldn't see it. He'd be kind of grumpy since his birthday, when he learned that the Devils had shot up his party. He wanted revenge and he was done playin' nice. Attacking the Clubhouse during his party was going too far. Only problem was, no matter how hard they looked, the Devils could not be found. It was probably for the best...for them. They got to live just a little bit longer.

Corrie crawled onto the bed and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm working the day shift today, remember, Mr. Grumpy Gus?"

"Just be careful." He said, his eyes closed. He didn't know what time it was but it was too fucking early in his book. He just wanted to curl up with his woman and sleep for a bit longer.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," she said, kissing his cheek.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he grumbled back before making a pathetic attempt to kiss her back without moving his head. He was rewarded with a giggle and a slap on the ass.

*******  
"Welcome back to work," her supervisor, Dr. Anderson said.

"Ah! It's so good to be back. Time off was nice but I was going stir crazy." Corrie replied.

"You're not a sitter, you're a doer. And the first thing you're gonna be doing is in Trauma 2. Traumatic right index finger amputation."

"Nice." Corrie replied walking to the trauma bay. She did a quick examination of the wound. "That's a nice, clean cut for it to have happened traumatically." She shot a look at the man. "Do we have his finger for reattachment?" She asked the nurse.

"No. Mr. Drakesen was unable to recover his finger." The nurse answered.

"Well, we're going to have a surgeon come take you up to repair what they can." Corrie told the man. "Let's get some pain meds going and that wound needs to be cleaned thoroughly."  
As Corrie was about to leave the room, the man grabbed her wrist. "Tell Jax that his brother did this to me."

"Excuse me?" Corrie replied, trying to stay calm.

"Thomas Teller cut off my finger! He also killed my President." The man said. There was no anger or malice in his words, just sadness.

"Why would Thomas cut your finger off?" She asked.

"I was one of the guys who shot up the party the other night at the Sons Clubhouse. He cut my finger into three pieces so it couldn't be saved." He said. "Jax needs to know."

"Okay. I'll...I'll tell him." Corrie nodded, wondering just what in the hell was going on.

A few hours later, Corrie ducked into the Doctor's Lounge to call Jax.

"Hey, darlin." She could hear the smile in his voice when he answered her call.

"Hey, baby." She couldn't stop the smile from spreading across her own face.

"How's work?" He asked.

"Uh...it's good. Listen, where you gonna be when I get off work?" she asked.

"I dunno. Probably at the club. Why? Everything okay?" he sounded worried.

"Everything's fine. I just need to talk to you about something."

"Uh oh." He said. "What'd I do?"

She chuckled. "You didn't do anything. Just some information I got that you need to hear."

"Yeah, okay. I'll just stick around here and wait for you." he said.

"Thanks, baby. I'll see you in a bit."

"See ya, babe." He said before hanging up.

The next three hours seem to fly by even though Corrie couldn't help watching the clock. With one hour left on her shift, she was growing more nervous by the minute. She didn't know how Jax was going to react to the news that his little brother had killed the president of a rival club and had cut another member of that rival club's finger off. Sure, the guy had shot up Jax's party but why would Thomas handle it? Thomas knew Jax had been looking for revenge so why would Thomas take it upon himself to injure the person?

Unfortunately, she didn't have long to ruminate before she was being called for another trauma patient. When she walked into the trauma room, her heart skidded to a stop. For a second, Corrie couldn't move; couldn't breathe. Strong hands took a firm grip of her shoulders. "It's not Abel." A voice whispered in her ear. She shot Tara a weak, thankful smile. It wasn't Abel. Corrie took a deep breath before jumping into action to try to save this young boy's life.

An hour and a half later, the boy was on his way to surgery and Corrie was exhausted. She walked out of the trauma room and was startled to see Jax leaning against the nurses' station, looking sexy as hell. Except, the scare from earlier was still pulsing through her. She wanted...no needed to see Abel and make sure he was okay.

"Hey," A quiet voice said from behind her. Corrie turned to see Tara. "Good work in there."

"Thanks." Corrie smiled. "You too."

"Yeah." Tara smiled back sadly. "I'll keep you updated. I know what it's like when a patient resembles...him."

"Thanks." Corrie repeated before walking to Jax. "Hey, what're you doing here?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I was expecting you awhile ago." He said softly.  
"Shit," Corrie put a hand to her head. "Sorry. Last minute emergency."

"It's all good, babe. You just had me a little worried, sayin' we needed to talk and then not showin' up." He smirked at her.

"Would it be okay if I went to see Abel first? That last patient...I just need to see for myself that he's okay."

Jax nodded. "Of course."

*******

Corrie dropped her purse at the kitchen table and walked around to the living room. She bent down to Abel who was playing in the living room.

"Hey, little man." She smiled. Abel gave Corrie a huge smile and threw his little arms around her. "You have fun today?"

"Yeah!" He said happily.

"That's great!" Corrie said as her bottom lip began to tremble and tears pooled in her eyes.  
"You sad?" Abel asked concerned. Jax walked in the door, having stopped at the store on his way home and arriving after Corrie. Abel whipped his head in his dad's direction. "Daddy!" Abel demanded, putting his little hands on his hips. "You make Corrie sad?"

Jax smiled at his son. "Nah, I didn't make Corrie sad. She just had a tough day at work."

Abel threw his arms around Corrie again and kissed her cheek. "All better?" he asked.

"Yeah, buddy." She smiled. "All better."

"Do I want to know?" Thomas asked. He was sitting on the coffee table in the living room and had been silently watching the scene unfold.

"No," Corrie said, wiping the tears from her cheeks and smiling at him. "It's over now." She walked over to Jax and wrapped her arms around him, just needing to feel him hold her for a little bit and needing to feel safe. He kissing the top of her head once his arms were wrapped around her.

"We still need to talk." Jax said quietly.

Corrie nodded. "I know. I just don't want to do it here."

Jax scowled at her, not understanding what was going on. "You want to go to the Clubhouse?"

"We can go to my house." She said. "I just can't tell you here."

Jax nodded. "Hey, Thomas, can you watch the brat for a bit?"

"Yeah, sure." Thomas shrugged.

After a quick goodbye to Abel, Corrie and Jax walked hand in hand out to his truck as a light drizzle began to fall. Jax drove them out of Charming and along to his spot at the streams. Corrie unbuckled her belt and scooted along the seat until she was pressed against Jax. She intertwined her fingers with his left hand.

"Babe," he said quietly, slipping a piece of hair behind her ear. He wrapped his right arm around her shoulders.

"A man came into the ER this morning." She said. She took a deep breath. "He wanted me to tell you that Thomas had killed his president and cut off his right index finger."

"What?" Jax gaped at her. "No way, babe."

"I was as shocked as you are! His finger was cleanly cut off, not like it was taken in an accident. He said Thomas cut his finger into pieces so it couldn't be saved. Jax...it was one of the guys who shot up your party." Corrie said.

"Cor, there's no way Thomas could do something like that. Thomas doesn't kill people. He doesn't maim people. That's Happy kind of shit. There has to be some mistake." Jax ran a hand down his face.

"I don't know, Jax. Thomas does disappear a lot for long periods of time. He has these cryptical phone calls all the time. Nobody knows what he does...not even your mom. Maybe-" She sighed.

"No, babe. I know my brother does some shit on the quiet side and yeah, I'm not real sure what he does to make a living. But my brother is not a brutal murderer. Are you sure you heard him right?" Jax asked.

"Yeah, Jax. He said your brother killed his president and cut off his finger." Corrie said.

"Maybe you got the clues wrong. Maybe he's talking about Happy. It makes more sense. He had to be talking about Happy." Jax said.

"No, Jax. I didn't get any clues wrong. There were no clues. He said 'Thomas Teller cut off my finger! He also killed my President.' There were no clues to figure out wrong." Corrie said. "Maybe he's just saying shit to rile you up or whatever. I don't know. But he wanted me to tell you...so I am. I'm not accusing Thomas of anything."

"Alright. I'll talk to him." Jax said. The rain was coming down in sheets now. Jax smirked at Corrie.

"What?" Corrie asked.

"Well, it would be dangerous to get back on the road until this rain stops." Jax said.

"And?" Corrie replied.

"We may be stuck here for awhile." He said.

"You are not suggesting-" Corrie was cut off as Jax took her lips with his. "You are!" She said, slapping him in the shoulder when they came up for air. It was quick and fast. Only Corrie had her pants all the way off. Otherwise, Jax just pushed his pants and boxers out of the way before slamming himself inside her and letting her ride him into oblivion.

*******  
"Hey," Jax said to Thomas as he walked in through the door to his house.

"Hey, Abel, let's go get ready for bed." Corrie said, taking Abel by the hand.

"You reek of sex." Thomas said, wrinkling his nose at his brother. "I guess everything is okay between you two."

"Yeah," Jax said, licking his lips. "We need to talk."

"About?" Thomas said.

"Why a member of the Devils of Mercy showed up in the ER today missing a finger, and telling Corrie that you did it. Not only that, but he wanted her to tell me that you did it and that you killed their president." Jax said.

"What?" Thomas looked shocked. Jax almost would have thought Thomas was innocent and shocked to hear the allegations against him if it hadn't been for the blood draining from Thomas' face. Jax knew that look, he'd seen it a million times when Thomas got busted by Gemma.  
"Alright, little brother. You need to start talking." Jax crossed his arms in front of him.


	29. Chapter 29

Thomas shrugged. "I do a little pest control." He said, walking into the kitchen to grab one of the many chocolate chip cookies Abel and Corrie had baked while she was off work.

"Cut the bullshit, Thomas." Jax huffed.

"An MC president has a little trouble from a supplier or a buyer, can't look like a club hit for some reason, they call me." Thomas said biting into his cookie. "Oh my God," he moaned around his mouthful, "these are so good. You know she should move in, right?"

"You're telling me you're a contract killer for MCs and now you want my girlfriend to move in with us?" Jax shook his head.

"Not with us." Thomas said. "I'm movin out when she moves in...if she goes along with it."

"You need to start making sense before I start beating the shit out of you. First, how the fuck did you get into handling problems for MCs?" Jax replied.

"At first, I was hired as an enforcer. You know, pay your money or I break your kneecaps kind of stuff. It kept the MCs lookin clean. One job went sideways and I had to kill a guy in self-defense. I guess I did such a good job taking care of the body that I was moved up." Thomas said.

"And you're not worried about being caught?" Jax was having a hard time keeping his rage in check. His little brother was a contract killer?

"Nah, I've perfected it over the years. If the guy is clean, it looks like a suicide. If he's into drugs, I make it look like a heart attack." Thomas said.

"How can you make it look like a heart attack?" Jax asked, not sure he wanted to know.

"Tara told me about this blood thinner." Thomas answered.

"Tara told you how to whack people?" Jax ground out.

"Not on purpose. She was tellin me about this nurse that was under suspicion for whackin her husband. See, the guy was in his 50s or something and he croaked. At autopsy, he was completely healthy. Like, nothing wrong with the guy. Tara said that the nurse must have used this blood thinning drug. I asked what it was and she told me. She has no idea what I do." Thomas said.

"Fuck." Jax shook his head. "I feel like an asshole. How did I not know this?"

"I keep it hidden." Thomas said. "Don't want Mom to find out."

"I can understand that." Jax agreed. "Now, what about this moving out thing?"

"Nicer subject. I like this subject. If...when Corrie agrees to move in with you, whenever that may be-no rush-I'm going to move in with Karina." Thomas said.

"Karina? Corrie's best-friend?" Jax said. "Jesus, you're full of secrets."

"I've been tappin her for over a year now. Hooked up while you were in Stockton. She wants to move to something a little more serious...and I want that too. But, we agreed to wait until Corrie moved out." Thomas said.

"I...appreciate that? I'm not sure what to say. I'd love for Corrie to move in here but I don't know if she's ready for that." Jax said.

"Well, whenever you think she's ready. Tonight, tomorrow night, next year. It's all good." Thomas said. "Now that you're home, I'm going to see my woman."

*******

Jax crawled into bed after checking that Abel was asleep. Corrie was already in bed with the lights off. He pulled her against him.

"You're tense." She whispered in the darkness, playing with the hair on his chin. "You need to talk about it?"

"My brother whacks people for a living." Jax said. He looked down at her. "How serious are you about me?"

"Wait...what?" Corrie squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. "Your brother kills people and you want to know how serious I am about you? Is this about the whole you thinking I'm going to bail because of some fucked up shit in your life because we've talked about this Jax and I-"

"I want you to move in with me." Jax said, cutting her off. "I mean, if you want to."

"Your brother kills people for a living and you want me to move in with you. This is so not how I saw my life going. I mean, how's the proposal going to go? 'Hey, babe, I just ran over five puppies and shot three kittens, will you marry me?'?" Corrie replied.

Jax laughed. "I don't run over puppies or shoot kittens. But, I hate the nights you're not here with me. Abel is a lot grumpier the days you aren't here when he wakes up."

"We haven't been together that long. Are you sure you're ready for me to move in?" Corrie asked as she twisted the end of Jax's beard.

"Babe, I'd marry you tomorrow. Of course I'm ready." Jax said.

"What brought this on?" Corrie asked.

"Honestly, my brother brought it up. He and Karina have been hooking up since before I got out of prison. She wants something more serious out of him. So, whenever you're ready to move in here, he'll move in there." Jax said.

"That bitch!" Corrie huffed. "I knew she was seeing somebody when I worked nights but she'd never cop to it. URGH!"

"You...you okay?" Jax asked.

"Oh...yeah, I'm not really mad. I'm just going to give her shit about it." Corrie said. "We're best-friends, we're supposed to tell each other everything."

"Um, babe, can we get back to you movin in or not?" Jax asked.

"Oh, shit, yeah, sorry. I guess I made up my mind without telling you. I'd love to move in with here with you and Abel."

Jax kissed her. Corrie broke away and put a hand to his lips. "Mmm, not tonight. I'm exhausted after three rounds in the truck this afternoon."

"Yeah, you need to get your rest. We're going to start moving your shit in here first thing tomorrow."

"Okay, baby." Corrie sighed as she snuggled in closer and fell asleep.

*******

"You're a total bitch for not telling me about Thomas." Corrie huffed at Karina the next day.

"I know." Karina said. "But it was supposed to just be a fling."

"And now it's serious." Corrie said.

"Yeah. Hey, your brother called looking for you." Karina replied.

"Shit. I told him I'd come up to see him this coming weekend. I totally forgot." Corrie said.

"You gonna take your old man with you, introduce him to the fam?" Karina asked, arching a brow.

"Not if I can help it." Corrie said. "That's the last thing in the world Jax needs."

*******  
"You've met my whole family." Jax protested. "And my mother is batshit crazy."

"Jax, it's not that I don't want my family to meet you. It's that I don't want you to meet my family." Corrie replied.

"That makes no sense." Jax said.

"Your mom is a little out there, Jax but my father and his wife..." Corrie drifted off, scratching her head. "I don't want you to hear what they're going to say to me."

"They have nothing bad to say." Jax said.

"You don't know them, Jax. I'm the one that got my mother killed in their eyes."

"And then they got married." Jax countered. "Why does that make you a bad person?"

"You don't understand." Corrie said, tears welling in her eyes. "My brother is the only person in my family who gives a shit about me. I have to go see him, just to make sure my dad isn't fucking him up."

"What do you mean?" Jax asked, fear and anger rising inside him.

"My dad's a mean drunk...and he's drunk a lot. I talked to Chris this afternoon and he doesn't sound like himself. I have to go make sure he's okay. This is my shit, Jax, I can handle it. You have enough to deal with right now." She said, running her hand over the cut on his head that he had received earlier from flipping Opie's truck and being kidnapped by the Russians.

"Babe, if he's going to get rough with you, then I'm going." Jax said.

"I need you to trust me to handle this." Corrie said. "I know how to control my dad-" A knock on the door interrupted her. She looked at the clock and was surprised to see it was after 9 pm. 

"You expecting anybody?"

"No," Jax said, reaching inside his cut for a gun.

"It's probably just somebody from the club." Corrie said as fear washed over her.

"They don't knock, babe. They just walk in." Jax said, heading for the front of the house.

"Shit," she whispered, hustling after him.

"Stay there." Jax pointed at her when she was at the start of the hall near the door. Jax took a quick look out the peephole, wrinkled his brow in confusion before opening the door a crack. 

"Can I help you?"

Corrie couldn't hear what the person on the other side of the door said. Jax stepped back with a sad look on his face. "What? What is it?" She asked going towards him.

"Babe," he said quietly as he let the door swing open.

"Oh, Jesus Christ," she said, as tears immediately started welling in her eyes again and falling down her cheeks.

"Hey, sis, Karina gave me your new address." Her little brother stood on the doorstep, his face unrecognizable under bruises and lumps.


	30. Chapter 30

What did he do to you?" Corrie whispered as she started to shake.

"I'm fine," Chris said.

"That doesn't look fine." Jax said tipping his head towards Chris.

"My sister can patch me up." Chris tried to grin.

Corrie shook her head. "I don't think I can."

"Chibs." Jax said.

"The Clubhouse? Jax, I don't know." Corrie said.

"Chibs can take care of him. It's not a big deal." Jax said taking her face in his hands. "It'll be fine babe."

Corrie nodded. She threw her arm around her brother as they walked to her car. "You need a place to stay?"

"Nah, I'm staying with Evan." Chris said.

"His parents are okay with that?" Corrie asked.

"Yep, totally fine." Chris said. "We've been best-friends for years."

"You can stay with us." Jax said as he got into the driver's seat.

"Thanks, man but I'm okay with Evan." Chris said.

*******

"Jackie!" Chibs bellowed when Jax walked into the Clubhouse.

"Hey, Chibs, need ya to work your magic." He tipped his head back towards Corrie and Chris.

"Jesus, wha'dya do to 'im?" Chibs asked.

"Wasn't me. That's Corrie's brother." Jax said quietly. "She can't patch him up."

"'Course, Jackie Boy." Chibs nodded. He hugged Corrie, "I'll do my best, lass."

"Thanks, Chibs." Corrie gave him a small smile.

Chris looked around the Clubhouse a little scared. He looked back at Corrie. "I'm okay, I don't really need to get fixed up. I can just go back to Evan's. I wanted to let you know that I was in town."

"Sit down," Corrie ordered as she pulled out a chair. "Chibs will give you some good drugs before he starts. I need to talk to Jax for a minute." She pointed at Chibs. "No Croweaters."

"Yes, ma'am." Chibs grinned.

Corrie headed towards Jax's old room at the end of the hall.

"What's up, babe?" He asked once the door was closed.

"I'm going to kill him, Jax!" She spit, anger raging through her veins.

"Corrie, just take a breath, okay?" Jax said as she paced his room.

"No! Did you see what he did to my brother?" Corrie snapped.

"Yeah, babe, I did. But-"

"I am sick of this shit! He can't get away with this anymore!" Corrie practically yelled.

"Babe, I'm not going to let him get away with this, okay?" Jax said. "But you cannot go after him."

"Why the fuck not?" Corrie slapped her palms against Jax's cut.

"Because you go in there throwin punches like you want to, darlin, and you could break a hand." Jax tried to keep his grin in check. She was sexy angry right now but he knew she'd blow her top if he let her know that he was having dirty thoughts about her right then.

"So?" Corrie demanded.

"So, then you miss work. Let me have somebody take care of this." Jax said.

"I don't need you to handle my family shit, Jax. I can take care of it." Corrie huffed.

"Babe, calm down. If you stopped to actually think this through, you'd see that I'm right. You can't go in there throwing punches but you can set revenge in motion...if that's what you really want." Jax said.

"Of course that's what I want!" Corrie huffed. "Okay, set it up. I want him hurt, not dead." She gave Jax a quick kiss. "Thanks, baby."

Jax waited until she left his room before flipping open his phone. "Thomas," he said when his brother answered. "I got a job for you if you want it."

"Um...okay," Thomas replied.

"Corrie's dad beat the shit out of her younger brother." Jax said.

"Jesus, that was her brother? Karina wouldn't tell me who it was that stopped by." Thomas said. "I thought he was in a car wreck."

"Corrie wants revenge." Jax said.

"Whatever that girl wants, she gets. Free of charge." Thomas replied.

"Thanks, bro. Oh...don't make him dead." Jax said before hanging up.

*******

Jax groaned and rolled over to look at the clock. It was 3:45 in the morning and his bed was disappointingly empty next to him. He quietly padded into the living room and sat next to Corrie on the couch. She snuggled against him immediately.

"You okay?" He kissed the top of her head.

"No," she sighed. "I can't get his face out of my head."

"Anything I can do to help?" Jax asked, running his hand through her hair.

Corrie shrugged. "I don't know. How do you deal with one of your guys getting the hell beat out of them?"

"Beat the hell out of the guy who gave the beating." Jax said.

"You took care of that part." Corrie replied.

"I don't know, babe. It's a different situation, ya know? It's just something that's expected being an outlaw." Jax said.

"Yeah," Corrie nodded. She shrugged again. "Maybe I'll feel better once I know that he's suffering like he made Chris suffer."

"He's safe, out of that house, and he doesn't have to go back there." Jax said.

"I know but I'm just...I see that shit every day. It shouldn't be him."

"Babe, he'll be okay." Jax said, kissing the top of her head.

"My dad gets to pay for the next six months." Corrie said.

"You want me to set up a beat down for the next six months, babe, you got it." Jax said.

Corrie chuckled. "I meant financially. I know Chris, he'll hit my dad where it hurts: the wallet."

"Your dad bites it, there's the inheritance." Jax grinned.

"Nah, his wife inherits." Corrie said.

"She can bite it too." Jax said.

"Then the money goes to her sister." Corrie said.

"Jesus, your family is fucked up." Jax said.

"Don't I know it." Corrie said.

*******

Later that day, Jax flipped open his phone. "Hey," he answered.

"It's done. Son of a bitch was told to stay away from Corrie. No contact, no nothing. Didn't seem too broken hearted over it." Thomas said.

"Good." Jax snarled before flipping his phone closed. Now he didn't have to worry about Corrie's dad laying hands on her again. He flipped his phone back open and punched in Corrie's number.

"Babe," he said when she answered, "you don't have to worry anymore. It's been taken care of."

"Thanks," she sighed with relief.

"What's the kid doing?" Jax asked  
.  
"Takin' a nap." Corrie replied.

"Hmmm, maybe I should come keep you company until he wakes up." Jax said seductively.

"Yeah, you just want to get laid." Corrie scoffed.

"When do I not?" Jax asked. She could hear his grin in his voice.

"Never." Corrie said. "Anyway, get back to work."

"Yes, ma'am." He said. A feeling washed over him. Something was yelling at him to tell her that he loved her. He didn't know why but he felt it was urgent to tell her. Ignoring the feeling, Jax flipped his phone closed.

*******

Three hours later, Abel and Corrie were making dinner together when there was a knock on the door. Corrie cautiously opened the door to find her father standing on the step much like Chris had been the night before.

"You little cunt!" Her dad spat as he barrelled into the house. "You sent somebody after me!"

"After what you did to Chris? You're damn right I did. Now, you need to leave my house." Corrie said.

"I don't know who this new guy is that you're whoring around with and I don't really give a shit. But you are not going to have somebody come to my house and have them beat the shit out of me." Her dad roared.

"Mommy..." Abel said quietly.

"It's okay, baby." Corrie said.

"You are so stupid." Her dad said.

"You can leave." Corrie snarled.

Her dad backhanded her and she saw stars. Abel started crying and ran into the living room. He saw Corrie's phone and quickly called his dad.

"Hey, babe." Jax said.

"Mommy!" Abel sobbed. "Mommy! Mommy!"

"Abel, what's going on?" Jax asked.

"Mommy, Daddy! Mommy!" Abel cried.

"I'm coming, okay? I'll be right there!" Jax said. He slammed his phone shut and ran towards his bike.

"Jackie?" Chibs yelled.

"Something's wrong with Corrie!" He yelled. As he raced towards his house he didn't even hear the rumble of bikes trailing him. His only focus was getting to Corrie and making sure she was okay.


	31. Chapter 31

"Corrie!" Jax roared as he burst through the front door. Corrie was standing toe-to-toe with her father. He couldn't really hear what they were saying since they were both screaming at each other. Jax's anger bubbled to the top when he saw a bruise forming on Corrie's cheek. Jax grabbed the back of Corrie's dad's shirt and swung him away from Corrie.

"What the hell?" Corrie's red-faced dad screamed. He took in the sight of Jax and sneered, not realizing Happy, Opie, and Chibs came through the door with Jax. "Oh, your loser criminal boyfriend gonna beat my ass again?"

"Her loser boyfriend didn't beat your ass last time." Jax snarled. "But he sure as shit will beat your ass this time, motherfucker. You come to my home, scare the shit out of my son, and put hands on my girlfriend?"

"Now, son..." her dad started.

"Don't call me son, old man." Jax growled in controlled rage.

"My name is Alan and I don't know what this stupid, no good, waste of skin told you about me," he said pointing at Corrie, "but this bitch has been lying her whole life. Her lies even got her mother killed."

"No, your dick got her mother killed. If you want to live to see another day, I suggest you stop talking." Jax replied.

"Oh, you never had to teach a bitch her place?" Alan snarled.

"Only bitches like you." Happy replied. Corrie's dad turned to take in the new voice. Jax had to hide his smirk. Corrie's dad was scared shitless, which is to be expected when somebody meets Happy under these circumstances.

"She...she needed to learn her lesson." He stammered.

"Well, Al, you apparently need to learn a lesson about putting your hands on my girl." Jax replied.

"Don' nobody lay a han' on our girl." Chibs menaced.

"She banging all of you now?" Alan sneered. "If I were you," he said turning to Jax, "I wouldn't let her anywhere near your kid. Not if you know what's good for him."

"She's an amazing mother to my son." Jax said.

"Oh, Jesus Christ," Piney huffed coming through the door.

"Pop," Opie started.

"You assholes talk too much." Piney shot back. He looked at Corrie. "Son of a bitch puts hands on her and you all are just standing around here flapping your gums with your thumbs up your asses."

"What are you going to do about?" Alan asked.

Piney slammed his fist into Alan's jaw, sending him sprawling onto the kitchen floor, unconscious. "Get him out of here." He turned back towards Corrie. "You okay darlin?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Corrie nodded. "I'm going to check on Abel." She wandered off down the hall.  
Jax gave orders to put Alan in his car, drive him out of Charming and leave him there. Once everybody was gone, Jax went to check on his little family.

"How's he doing?" Jax asked. Abel had his arms wrapped around Corrie's neck and his legs wrapped around her torso. He kept repeating, "No hurt my mommy." Corrie rubbed his back, repeating that she was fine.

"He's shaken up." Corrie said.

"Hey, buddy." Jax said as he sat on the bed next to them. Abel threw himself at Jax. Jax wrapped him into a hug. "I am so proud of you." Jax said gently. "You were very very brave today. I am so glad you called me."

Abel pulled away. "That man hurted Mommy."

"No, baby," Corrie smiled at him. "I'm fine, see? Because you called your daddy, everything is okay."

"You were badass today, buddy." Jax smirked at his son.

"Ba'ass like you?" Abel asked.

"Yup, badass like me." Jax grinned.

*******

Three days later was a Saturday. Abel had been fine after Jax told him he was badass like his dad. Corrie didn't hear anything else from her dad. She couldn't tell who was more upset by that: Chibs or Happy. Each of them asked her every time they saw her if she'd heard from her sperm donor. They were itching to pay him another visit.

"Where are you two going?" Thomas asked when he walked into the house that morning.

"We need to get food for Snuggles." Corrie smiled sarcastically. "Somebody just had to buy Abel a fish for his birthday."

"What can I say? I'm an awesome uncle." Thomas shrugged. "But seriously, leave the midget here."

"I not a mi'get! I badass!" Abel scowled.

"I'm not leaving him here. We'll be gone 10 minutes." Corrie said.

"Yeah, we'll see." Thomas said skeptically.

Half an hour later, Thomas burst out laughing when Corrie sheepishly walked through the door with a bag full of stuff followed by a proud Abel holding an orange kitten.

"Is Jax here?" Corrie asked.

"No, he's still at the Club." Thomas said.

Corrie let out a breath of relief. "This is bad, isn't it?"

"I dunno. I think if anybody can convince him that he needs a cat, it's you." Thomas said, the smirk never leaving his face.

"This is bad. This is really, really bad." Corrie repeated. "He's going to make me get rid of it which is going to break Abel's heart."

"This is why I never bring Abel with me to get fish food." Thomas said.

"Why. Didn't. You. Tell. Me. That?" She said, hitting Thomas with each word.

"I tried." Thomas said.

"Bullshit! I told you where we were going and you said I should leave him here. That's all you said! If you would have told me that he was going to fall in love with a kitten and then throw a fit about dying in the middle of the store if he didn't get the kitten, I would have left him here with you!" She screeched.

"Wow. He actually said he'd die?" Thomas asked.

"He said if we left that kitten at Petco, he'd die of a broken heart." Corrie said. She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "You knew there would be animal rescue groups with animals for adoption today didn't you?"

Thomas shrugged sheepishly. "They're there every Saturday."

"Well, you get to tell Jax that you let me get bamboozled into bringing home a kitten." Corrie said.

"Fuck that!" Thomas said getting up and heading for the door. "I'm not telling him shit."

"Get back here, you chicken!" Corrie yelled as Thomas ran to his car.

Two hours later, Abel was sitting on the couch watching a movie, the cat supplies were put away, the litter box setup in the bathroom, and the kitten was sleeping next to a blanket on the back of the couch when Jax walked in.

"Hey, babe, can I talk to you for a second?" Jax asked.

"Sure," Corrie said walking to the bedroom. "I didn't want to, Jax. I mean, yeah I kinda did when I first saw him but-"

"What are you talking about?" Jax scowled.

"Thomas shouldn't have told you." Corrie said.

"I haven't talked to Thomas today. What shouldn't he have told me?" Jax replied.

"Oh!" Corrie said, relief washing over her. "Nothing. Nothing at all. What did you need to talk to me about?"

"I got you something." Jax said pulling a ring box out of his pants pocket  
.  
"Jax...I don't know-" she started.

"It's not that kind of ring." He smirked. He opened the box to reveal a black band with SAMCRO in silver on it. "I know that it's too early for a crow or an engagement ring but I just want you to have something that says you're mine."

Corrie delicately pulled the ring out. "It's a little big."

"They only make them for men." Jax said.

"You think I have man hands?" Corrie arched a brow.

"What? No! No! I-"

"Jax, I'm fucking with you. I love it." She slipped the ring onto her thumb and gave Jax a quick kiss.

"Now," He said. "What was all of that before about Thomas?"

"Just like I said. It's nothing at all." Corrie said.

"You're hiding something from me and I'm going to figure out what it is." Jax said as he went into the bathroom.

Corrie hightailed it back to the living room to make sure the kitten was still asleep; with any luck Jax wouldn't notice the ball of fur on his couch for awhile.

"Babe," Jax called.

"Yeah?" She replied when he joined them in the living room.

"Why's there a box full of...weird sand in the bathroom?" Jax asked.

"Is Benwee's poop box, dad." Abel replied in a voice that just shouted "Duh, Dad!"

"What's a Benwee?" Jax asked, confused.

"Nothing." Corrie smiled.

Jax shrugged and went into the kitchen. "Corrie!" He bellowed, walking into the living room at a quick pace. "Why is there a food dish and water on the floor?"

"Is there?" She asked innocently.

"Don't play stupid with me." Jax said sternly, sitting next to his son on the couch. "What did you do?" Jax glared at his girlfriend as Abel looked at him with a big smirk on his face. He jumped as sharp pain shot through his head. "Ow!" He jumped off the couch and noticed the orange kitten. "What the hell is that?"

"Is my kitten, Daddy. Benwee." Abel replied happily.

"Benwee?" Jax asked.

"Abel named him Bentley B. Teller." Corrie said.

"No. No." Jax shoot his head, his hands on his hips. "We are not having a cat. Bikers do not have cats. I do have a cat!"

"But Daaaaaad," Abel whined, throwing himself back on the couch. "If I don't has him, I'll diiiiiiiie."

"We cannot have a cat, Abel." Jax said to his son. "He needs to go back."

"That bweaks my hweat!" Abel said as big tears rolled down his cheeks. "I lub him and he was all alone and I brought him home to have a fambly!"

"See what I had to try to say no to?" Corrie asked. "I tried, Jax. I really did."

"Abel, what if you're allergic to him?" Jax said. "You'll be really sick."

"I not 'lergic!" Abel cried.

"Calm down, you'll make yourself sick." Jax said sitting next to Abel on the couch. Before he knew it, Bentley climbed from the back of the couch, down Jax's front and curled up on his lap, purring loudly. "Fuck," he muttered. He looked at Corrie. "We have a cat, don't we?"

"I think so. I wouldn't have done this without your permission, Jax. Believe me, it wasn't my intention to go behind your back or anything. We went to get fish food and Abel saw the kitten. He was all alone in the crate and Abel was crying about having a broken heart and I caved. I'm sorry." Corrie said.

"Babe, if I had been there, I probably wouldn't have said no either." Jax sighed.

"I promise to make it up to you." Corrie said flashing him a naughty look.

"I'm going to hold you to that." Jax smirked.

"I know you will." Corrie said.


	32. Chapter 32

"Ouch! Goddammit, you fucking fur ball!" Jax grumped, burying his face deeper into his pillow.   
"Stop laughing!" The pillow muffled his voice.

"Is the big bad biker getting his ass kicked by a kitten?" Corrie asked.

"He's not a kitten anymore! He's 10 months old." Jax huffed.

"He's a kitten for another two months." Corrie replied.

"He's not gonna make it another two months if he keeps attacking my feet in the middle of the night." Jax said, his face still buried in the pillow.

"Stop moving your feet. He won't attack them then." Corrie shrugged.

"You always take the cat's side." Jax said.

"Baby, we've had that cat for 8 months now. Sooner or later you're going to have to accept that he's part of your life now."

"I'll never accept him," Jax said.

"You're still mad at him for clawing your ass the night we got him. I told you it was a bad idea to have sex with a kitten in the house. Then, I told you that you should at least cover yourself with the blanket but you wouldn't listen." Corrie pointed out.

"Whatever...still hate the cat." Jax yawned.

"Okay, baby." Corrie sighed.

"Shut up or I will smother you in your sleep." Jax grouched back.

"I'd like to see you try it." Corrie shot back.

"Don't tempt me."

"Go back to sleep, Groucho." Corrie replied.

"I'm trying but you keep talking."

"God, you're exactly like a baby. I bet if I shove a nipple in your mouth, you'll shut the fuck up." Corrie said.

Jax picked his head up out of his pillow and arched an eyebrow at her. "Wanna find out?"

"Where's the kitten?" Corrie asked.

"I don't care." Jax said, crawling on top of her.

"You will when he scratches your ass again." She giggled against his lips.

*******

Jax was ripped from his post-amazing-sex-sleep by Abel's crying. He realized that whatever was going on, Corrie was already trying to deal with it since her side of the bed was empty. He huffed out a sigh, quickly pulled on some boxers and jeans before heading to the kitchen to see what was wrong with his son. Jax stopped at the small breakfast table and put his hands on his hips, his eyes shooting daggers at his younger brother.

"What did you do?" Jax demanded.

"Me? I didn't do anything!" Thomas cried.

"The cat ate the fish." Corrie said, running her hand through Abel's hair.

"I don't like Benwey!" Abel said, throwing his head back and crying. "He ated my fiss!"

"Good, then we can get rid of him." Jax shrugged.

Abel grabbed Bentley around the middle and ran down the hall. "No get rid of Benwey!" Abel yelled, slamming his door behind him.

Corrie shot Jax an angry look. "Go tell him we're not getting rid of Bentley."

"We're not getting rid of the cat." Jax sighed.

"I know that, Mr. Sensitivity but your son doesn't. Go tell him!" Corrie said.

"I'll tell him after I've had coffee." Jax said trying to reach the coffee cups in the cupboard. Corrie slapped his hand. "Ow!" He glared at her.

"Go tell him or you'll have to get your first cup of coffee at the Clubhouse." Corrie crossed her arms in front of her.

"That's really harsh, babe." Jax huffed.

Corrie's hand connected with a loud SLAP against his bare chest. "Go!"

"Shut up, Tommy!" Jax grumbled at his chuckling brother as Jax headed towards Abel's room.

*******

While the mini-drama was unfolding in Jax's kitchen, Gemma was dealing with a worrying situation of her own.

"What's the matter, baby?" Gemma asked Clay as he sat at their dining table drinking coffee. "You seem distracted."

"Just thinking about how much harder it's gotten to lock Jax down since the doc has come into our lives." Clay said.

"What do you mean, baby?" Gemma asked cooly, trying to figure out where Clay was going with this.

"Used to be that he was always around when I needed to bounce an idea off him or get a strategy together. Now? Hell, he's too busy burying himself in the doctor's pussy to give the Club a second thought." Clay grumbled.

"I don't think it's Corrie that's the problem." Gemma said taking a sip of coffee. "I think Jax wants to spend as much time with Abel as possible. Jax missed 14 months of his son's life. He wants to make up for lost time."

"I think she's a liability." Clay said.

"Oh, come on, Clay. She's nothing but Jax's old lady." Gemma scoffed.

"Exactly!" Clay yelled. "Who knows what kind of shit he's telling her? She could put us all behind bars for the rest of our lives."

"Okay," Gemma blinked rapidly, shocked at Clay's outburst. "What do you think should be done?"

"I think the little tart needs to disappear. There's a run next week. When Jax comes home, I dunno, maybe she's not there anymore. Just decided to leave or something." Clay shrugged.

"Whatever you think is best, baby." Gemma said, dumping out her coffee in the sink and giving Clay a quick kiss on the cheek. "Gotta get into work." She also had to figure out a way to keep Jax's current old lady alive and right where she was supposed to be.

*******  
"Clay, come on, man." Jax pleaded after everybody had departed the chapel. 

"You're up." Clay shrugged. "Need one of my best guys on this one and you're the best I got."

"You don't understand, Clay. It's my anniversary. I can't be on the road on my anniversary." Jax said.

"You're obviously serious about the doc. You'll have a lot of anniversaries to celebrate." Clay smirked. "You'll take Juice and Chibs. Club comes first."

"Yeah," Jax huffed and nodded. Once he got home, he slammed the door behind him. Of all the shitty times for Clay to pull his "I am President, the Club comes first routine."

"Everything okay, Groucho?" Corrie asked from the living room.

"No. Everything's not okay. Clay's sending me on a run." Jax ran a hand over his frustrated face.

"So?" Corrie asked, coming up to him and wrapping her arms around him.

"So, it means I'll miss our first anniversary." Jax grumped.

"Yeah, and that'll suck but we're gonna have a lot of anniversaries to celebrate together." She grinned.

"Clay's pulling some power bullshit with me. We haven't been seeing eye to eye lately. He and Piney are at odds. Piney's up at the cabin drinking it off. I just...I just don't know what's going on anymore." Jax sighed.

"It'll settle down, baby. Everybody's gotta settle back in after being in prison. Clay's gotta prove he's head of the table again." Corrie said. "It'll be okay, baby."

Jax rested his forehead against hers. "How did I end up with such a great old lady?"

"I dunno." Corrie responded.

*******

Jax and Corrie's anniversary passed with them talking on the phone. It upset Jax to no end that he had to be in Uncle Jury's Clubhouse while his girl was in Charming. All because Clay had to pull a power trip.

Back in Charming, Gemma was heaving a huge sigh of relief. She'd changed Clay's mind about Corrie "disappearing." Gemma had reminded Clay of how broken Jax was when Tara had left and how much more broken he would be if anything happened to Corrie. Now if only Gemma could get ahold of Piney.

Jax huffed as he walked into his empty house. He had a few hours to kill before Corrie and Abel got home. He absent mindedly went through the mail and opening the letters that came in while he was gone.

He was barely paying attention to what he assumed were bills and ads when he looked down. Two words were bolded on the paper. He wasn't quite sure what the other shit on the paper meant, he knew it had something to do with Corrie since her name was on the top of the page but those two words were screaming at him in bold letters.

Pregnant: Yes.

Jax quickly pulled out his phone and texted Corrie. "You need to come home. Now." He paced the floor while he waited for her to show up. Did she know about this? Had she suspected? Why hadn't she told him?

When Corrie walked through the door and Jax blurted it out.

"You're pregnant!"

"What?" Corrie laughed. "That's not possible. That's not even a nice joke to try, Jax."

He held up the paper in his hand. "This says you're pregnant!"

"Let me see that." Corrie demanded, ripping the paper from his hands. "No, this can't be." She said as her eyes scanned the paper. "I just wanted to test my thyroid. I can't be pregnant."

"You mean you had no idea?" Jax asked.

"No! I had no idea. It never crossed my mind. And why are you telling me that I'm pregnant?! Who does this? I mean, in what life is a woman told by her boyfriend that she's pregnant? This doesn't happen to normal people, Jax!”


	33. Chapter 33

Jax sat on a barstool at the Clubhouse, thoughts swirling through his head. Did Corrie get pregnant on purpose? Did she want more from him than he was ready to give her? Was he ready to be a father again? There was so much to consider and to figure out. He hadn't even really let her say much after he told her she was pregnant. And yeah, she had looked shocked and in disbelief. He'd lit out of the house so fast that he hadn't really stopped to consider how shocked she had looked at the news. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice Opie sit next to him, which was something considering Ope's big frame.

"Dude, it's not like she did it on purpose." Opie said once his best-friend dished about why he was being so huffy. Jax had shown up at the Clubhouse in a foul mood and ready to drink like a fish.

"I don't know if I'm ready to be a dad, again, Ope. This is all way too fast." Jax shook his head, taking another sip of beer.

"You said yourself, Corrie was shocked as shit when you told her." Opie said. "Don't ya think it might be too fast for her too? Maybe she's not ready to be a mom."

"She's already a mom to Abel." Jax said.

"And you're already a dad to Abel. Been a dad a few years longer than she's been a mom."   
Opie pointed out. "How does that make her any more ready to be a mom again?"

"Chicks are wired differently. They're supposed to want to have babies." Jax muttered.

"Whatever, dude. Donna freaked out when she found out she was pregnant a second time. She did not want another baby." Opie said.

"Yeah, but if she didn't want to get pregnant, shouldn't she have been more on top of her birth control?" Jax asked.

Opie cocked an eyebrow at his best-friend and shook his head. "You think it's that simple? Same could be said for you, brother. Shouldn't you have wrapped your shit?"

"It's not the same," Jax huffed.

"That's bullshit and you know it." Opie said angrily. "Don't give me this song and dance about you’re the victim here. Corrie isn't the type of chick who'd get knocked up on purpose. She loves you and knows you love her. She isn't going to trap you. You're pulling this bullshit because you're afraid of what happens if she decides she doesn't want to have the baby. You haven't even given her a chance to digest this fully. You're bailing on her without even realizing you're doing it. Maybe if you pulled your head out of your ass and told her that you're with her all the way, you'd see that she wants this baby, too. By pushing her away, you're almost forcing her to do what Tara did. You know she can't raise a baby by herself."

Jax huffed out a sigh and nodded at Opie, his mouth set in angry line.

"Where you goin?" Opie demanded when Jax headed towards the back of the Clubhouse, worried that Jax was about to do something incredibly stupid.

"I need to work out." Jax said, needing to physically work the anger and shock from his system.

*******

"Where's Jax?" Gemma asked when she walked into the house, noticing Corrie absentmindedly spinning a cup on the table, her head in her hand.

"Clubhouse." Corrie said replied quietly.

"Thought since he'd been gone for a week, you two'd be making up for lost time. Especially with him being gone on your anniversary and all." Gemma said.

"He was going through the mail and opened a letter that had my blood test results. Apparently the reason I've been so tired lately is because I'm pregnant."

"Well...shit." Gemma sat down heavily next to Corrie.

"Yup. Jax told me I was pregnant then he left." Corrie sighed.

"Wait. Jax told you?" Gemma asked.

"I had no idea; didn't even suspect." Corrie shook her head.

"No missed periods? No throwing up?" Gemma couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"I've had problems with ovarian cysts and endometriosis since I was 19. My gyno has me taking birth control in a way that only have my period once a year." Corrie explained. "I've just been really tired lately. My mom had a problem with her thyroid so I figured that had to be what was going on with me too."

"Surprise." Gemma deadpanned.

"No shit. And now I have no idea how to feel about this. Jax isn't happy about it." Corrie sighed.

"He'll come around, baby." Gemma patted Corrie's arm.

"Yeah because he didn't bail on the last two women who were pregnant." Corrie snapped. She rubbed her forehead. "Sorry, Gemma. I'm just so confused."

"Yes, he bailed on Wendy. He bailed on Tara but for different reasons. He didn't know she was pregnant. He's different when it comes to you." Gemma smiled softly.

*******

Jax wiped the sweat from his face. His head was much clearer after a strenuous workout. He wanted to go straight home and apologize like fuck to Corrie. He couldn't believe that he'd even thought for a second that she'd gotten pregnant on purpose. He was ashamed of himself for even thinking it.

"Talk to you?" Clay asked, poking his head into the gym.

"Sure, what's up?" Jax replied. He was not in the mood to listen to whatever Clay had to say.

"Jury said you were real helpful while you were up there." Clay said. Jax just nodded his head. What did Clay expect him to say? "Got another shipment going that way. I'd like you on it; make sure everything goes smoothly."

Jax's vision flashed red. He took a couple of deep breaths to keep himself from coming uncorked on his President. "No, Clay." Jax ground out. "I'm off the rotation."

"You're not up for awhile but I'd feel better if you were there." Clay said.

"I'm not going." Jax huffed. "I just got home. I'm not leaving again."

"You sayin no to the Club?" Clay challenged.

"I'm sayin' no to you." Jax replied, getting up and heading towards the door.

"This about the girl?" Clay spat.

Jax stopped dead in his tracks. "It's about her and Abel. If you gotta problem with that, I suggest you get over it." He growled without turning around.

Clay nodded somberly even if Jax couldn't see it. He pulled out his prepay and dialed a number from memory.

*******

When Jax entered the bar of the Clubhouse, he was met with glares from the guys hanging around.

"What?" He demanded. What the fuck was wrong with these assholes?

"You hurt her, kid," Piney said in his low, gravelly voice, "and I will knock your teeth down your Goddamn throat."

Jax raised his eyebrows at the old man. He looked around the room. "You all feel that way?"

"Yeah, Jackie." Chibs answered. "She's a good lass. She deserves better."

"We like having her around." Juice shrugged.

"She's good for you." Opie offered.

Jax just nodded. "Prospect," he said to Filthy Phil, "you're on sandbox duty. You show up at my house every fuckin' day to clean that fucking thing until I tell you you're done."

"Yes, sir." Phil replied.

"This shit's gonna kill me." Piney said. "I'm going to the cabin."

*******

When Jax walked into his house, he found Corrie curled up asleep in the recliner. He kissed her on the head and ran his hand over her hair. She stirred and slowly opened her eyes.

"Hey, baby," he whispered. "Where's the kid?"

"Your brother wanted to go see the new animated movie so he took Abel as an excuse to see it." Corrie replied sleepily. He laid his forehead against hers.

"I'm here, Corrie. I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere. You're it for me." He whispered, kissing her quickly. "I love you. You and our baby."

"I love you too." She whispered back, smiling at him.

"Got room for one more in that chair?" He asked. She smiled and moved over so he could crawl into the chair with her. He snuggled her close against his body. He let himself relax and fall asleep.

*******

"Jax refused to go on a run to Indian Hills today." Clay said.

"He's probably just starting to challenge you, you know? Show you that he's ready to lead." Gemma replied.

"He said it was because of the girl." Clay chuckled.

"Clay, you cannot do anything to Corrie. It will ruin Jax." Gemma said.

"He'd get over it." Clay shrugged a shoulder.

"If you hurt her, you're not just hurting his ol' lady...you're hurting his unborn child too." Gemma said, a hand on her hip.

"Must be why he said no. Didn't want to leave her alone and knocked up." Clay guessed.

"You know Jax. He loves the Club. He lives for the Club. Everybody has said no to the Club because of pussy, Clay, even you. Some have said it more than once." Gemma reminded him. "She's part of this family now. You can't hurt a member of your own family. You're not that heartless, Clay."

"Yeah," Clay said quietly. "You're right."


	34. Chapter 34

"I'm going to go to the Clubhouse and scream from the rooftops." Jax smiled as he stretched in bed the next morning.

"No, you are not." Corrie replied.

"Gemma and the Club already know. Why not announce it to the world?"

"Jax, we have to tell Karina and your brother first. And then we have to figure out a way to explain this all to Abel." Corrie explained.

"Oh. Yeah, I guess that does make sense." Jax agreed.

Corrie's phone chirped on the bedside table. "Hello?"

"Hey," Gemma replied. "You called Piney lately?"

"I called him last night but he didn't answer." Corrie said.

"I'm starting to get worried. I talked to him yesterday but he hasn't returned any of my calls since." Gemma said.

"I'll go check on him. Make sure he's not passed out drunk." Corrie said.

"Thanks, hon." Gemma said before disconnecting the call.

"Ma worried about Piney?" Jax guessed.

"Yeah, he's not returning phone calls." Corrie said getting out of bed. "I'll go up there later to check on him."

*******

A couple of hours later, Jax was pacing around the garage. He'd texted and called Corrie a bunch of times but she hadn't answered him back. He just wanted to know that she was okay. He was mixed with relief and worry when her car sped into the parking lot and came to a screeching halt. Fear bloomed in his chest when she got out of the car. Her face was tear-stained and she was heaving short breaths. Blood was on her hands and shirt.

"Babe-" he started to head towards her but she held up her hand and cut him off. Her eyes were focused on Opie.

"What?" Opie asked when he saw Corrie staring at him. She threw her arms around him and started sobbing. Opie enveloped her in his arms, his eyes seeking out his best-friend for answers. Jax shrugged.

"I'm so sorry, Ope!" Corrie sobbed. "I'm so so sorry!"

"What are you talking about, Corrie?" Opie asked gently.

Corrie pulled back and looked Opie in the eyes. "I just went to check on your dad. He was-I found him...they shot him, Opie!"

"What? Who?" Opie demanded, cupping her face in his hands.

Corrie shook her head. "I don't know," she said quickly. "I walked in and he was just lying on the floor. There was nothing I could do. I tried, Opie! I tried!"

"Shh," Opie said, running a hand over her hair and trying to quiet her hitching breath. "I know, Corrie." Opie pulled away and looked helplessly at Jax. "I should...I should make arrangements and stuff."

"Oh God, somebody has to tell Gemma." Corrie said, wiping the tears from her face.

"I can do it." Jax said softly, putting his hand between her shoulder blades.

"No," Corrie shook her head. "Go with Opie. He needs you." Jax nodded, quickly kissing her forehead and then jogging after his best-friend.

Corrie slowly made her way towards Gemma's office. When she got there, she noticed the door was cracked open and she could hear Gemma talking to Unser.

"You don't really think Clay killed Piney, do ya?" Unser asked.

"Clay called me last night to tell me he was tired and was just going to crash at the Clubhouse. Problem was, I was here when he called. Piney had somethin' on Clay; somethin' bad. I went to check on Piney this morning. That's when I found his body." Gemma said.

"Well, I cleaned up the scene as best I could. Nobody will know it was Clay. I just feel bad that the pregnant doctor had to find him." Unser said.

"It's better this way. We'll be the only ones who know it was Clay." Gemma said. "This keeps everybody safe."

Corrie backed away from the door, turned into the lawn and threw up. She couldn't believe what she had just heard; shivers racked her body. Gemma had sent Corrie up to the cabin, knowing full well that Piney was dead and that Clay had killed him.

"Morning sickness?" Gemma asked, coming out of the office. Corrie wiped her mouth and nodded. "You see Piney?"

Corrie knew how this was supposed to play out. She was supposed to tell Gemma that Piney was dead. It took her a second to figure out what she was going to do. "He's dead, Gem. Somebody killed him."

"Oh no! Oh, Jesus!" Gemma said before she burst into tears and hugged Corrie. Corrie thought it was an Emmy worthy performance. "What about Opie? Oh, poor Opie, I'm going to have to tell him!"

"I already told him. He and Jax are off making arrangements." Corrie said numbly.

"Oh, oh you poor thing!" Gemma said, hugging Corrie harder. Obviously, Gemma had planned on telling Opie herself. Corrie quickly swallowed down another rush of bile.

*******

Hours later, Jax and Opie stood in the crematorium, watching Piney's remains turn to ash.

"Who could have done this?" Opie asked, shaking his head.

"I dunno, man. We're gonna figure this out." Jax promised. "What do you need me to do?"

"I'm not really sure right now." Opie said, numbly. "I probably need to check on Lyla and the kids."

"Corrie's taking care of them, you don't have to worry about that." Jax said.

"Probably have a small Club gathering before spreading his ashes." Opie said.

Jax silently nodded. He didn't know if he should leave Opie alone to say goodbye to his father. And on top of that, Jax hadn't checked in with Corrie for awhile. After getting the news from Corrie, Opie had called Skeeter to meet him up at the cabin and remove Piney's body. Opie had stopped by the studio Lyla was at to break the news to her. She'd called Corrie to help her tell the kids about their grandfather. All Jax knew was that it had been a long, fucking horribly emotional day. He knew his old lady and he knew that she was doing everything in her power to keep it together for the Winstons. He knew it was selfish but he just wanted to see Corrie.

"Go on, get out of here." Opie sighed, as if he could read Jax's mind.

"No, bro. I can stick around." Jax replied.

"Corrie's still over at my house. Pick her up, take her home. Make sure she's okay." Opie said.

"Are you sure?" Jax asked.

"Yeah, man." Opie said. "I'll stay here with him until..." he trailed off. "You should check on your mom, too."

******

Corrie was exhausted. She sat on the couch in Opie and Lyla's house, Ellie's head in her lap. Lyla sat staring out the window, tears silently streaming down her face. Corrie just wanted to take a long hot shower, let Jax wrap her in his arms and hold her tightly. For hours on end, Corrie's thoughts had rolling around and around in her head. She had no idea what to do about what she'd heard between Gemma and Unser. Should she tell Jax? Should she tell Opie? Should she tell nobody? The weight of the biggest and hardest decision she'd ever had to make was weighing heavily on her shoulders.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Corrie let her head fall back against the couch cushions. She was in quite the predicament.


	35. Chapter 35

Corrie walked through the door and sat heavily on the couch. She hadn't heard from Jax in hours. She just wanted to wrap her arms around him because she knew that he was hurting from the death of his best-friend's father. Piney had been JT's best-friend; he kept Jax grounded and reminded him of what JT wanted, not only for the club but for Jax as well. Now, that sounding-board was dead. Corrie shook her head as more tears fell down her face. She was on her feet and into the entryway the second she heard Jax's motorcycle pull into the driveway. He pushed his way inside and gave her a lopsided smile as he shut the door. He leaned back against it and looked at her. He attempted to give her a watery smile but faltered. Every defense he'd put up since hearing that Piney was dead came crumbling down in her presence. He knew he didn't have to be strong for her.

"Oh, baby," she whispered as his lips quivered and he took a deep breath. She pulled him away from the door, wrapping a hand around the back of his head and guiding it to her shoulder. She wrapped her other arm around his back as sobs wracked his body. She rocked him slowly and whispered encouragement to him that it was okay, she was there for him. She silently thanked Thomas again for taking Abel overnight.

Jax had no idea how long they stood in the entryway. He didn't care, really. He was just grateful for the woman in his arms. He was grateful that he didn't have to be Jax Teller, SAMCRO Vice President with her. He could be Jax Teller, just a man with the same emotions as everybody else.

"What happens now?" She asked once they were both cried out.

"We take a shower." He said, sniffing.

She smiled at him. "Okay. But I was talking about with this whole situation."

"We find who killed Piney and we make them pay." He said as pure rage flashed in his eyes.  
"We torture them for hours until they beg for death."

"It was Clay!" Corrie blurted out, her hand immediately covering her mouth. She turned from Jax and ran into the bathroom, emptying her stomach contents into the toilet.

"What are you talking about?" Jax asked quietly from the doorway after Corrie had rinsed her mouth.

"I shouldn't...I don't know where that came from." She said quietly, looking at the floor.

"That's a bunch of bullshit and you know it." Jax said, his anger flashing to the surface. "What's going on, Corrie?"

"Nothing! I shouldn't have said anything. It's just an emotionally charged day." She shook her head.

"Yeah, it has been." Jax nodded. He turned the shower on and set the temperature. "But this isn't over, babe. If you don't tell me tonight, you're going to tell me first thing in the morning."  
"Jax..." she started but he held up his hand to silence her.

"I want to know why you said it was Clay. But I'm not going to push you tonight." He said gently. He quickly got undressed and got in the shower, Corrie quickly following suit. They took turns letting the warm water wash over their heads and faces, cleaning away the salt from their tears. Jax wrapped his arms around Corrie and pulled her back against his chest before kissing her head.

"I was going to tell your mother about Piney." She said, taking a shaky breath. "The door to the office was open a little bit and she was talking to Unser. She said Piney had something on Clay. I guess Clay called her last night and said that he was going to sleep at Clubhouse but your mom was there. She knew he was lying."

"Shit." Jax huffed. He brought his hands to his face, his fingers steepled over his mouth, and blew out a breath.

"Your mom...she went up to the cabin this morning." Corrie said, not turning around to look at him.

"What do you mean she went up to the cabin this morning?" Jax ground out.

"She went to check on Piney this morning and found him. She called Unser to clean up the scene and then she called me." Corrie said.

"She called you to check on him when she knew he was dead." Jax shook his head.

"She said it was better this way. It keeps everybody safe." Corrie said.

"Jesus Christ." Jax huffed.

"I'm sorry, Jax." Corrie said turning to face him. "I shouldn't have told you. Not like that."

Jax took her face firmly in his hands. "Don't!"

"I should have waited...I should have-"

"No!" He was practically shouting at her. "I am so tired of secrets, do you hear me? We can't have secrets from each other."  
"Jax, I would have told you but I should have waited a day or two." She replied.

"Don't ever apologize for telling me the truth!" He crushed her against his chest, tucking her head under his chin, his hand in her hair. He kissed the top of her head. "Never." He said.

*******  
Opie sat numbly on the dining room chair, staring at the spot where his dad's body had fallen. He couldn't comprehend that his father was dead. After the pain and horror of losing Donna, his brain and heart weren't prepared for this latest blow to his family. Slowly, he moved to sit in the place where his dad had lain. Tears fell from his eyes for an interminable amount of time. He'd just wiped his eyes, getting ready to stand up and leave when something caught his eye. It was the light glinting off something under the couch. He reached out and grabbed whatever it was in his big hand. Slowly, he opened his palm to inspect the item. A gold reaper pin stared up at him.  
SAMCRO! SAM-FUCKING-CRO! His mind screamed. Not only had Clay and Tig been responsible for Donna's death but now one of his so-called brothers had killed his father.


	36. Chapter 36

Corrie lay in bed the next morning staring at the ceiling. Maybe if she didn't move, didn't get out of the safety of her bed, maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't be real.

"Babe," Jax said softly from the doorway.

"Hm," she responded, not moving.

"I have to go to the Clubhouse. You can meet me there and we can ride to-"

"Don't say it, Jax. If you say it, then it's real. It can't be real...right, Jax? He's not really...gone." She said without looking at him.

Jax sat on the bed softly, taking her hand in his. He kissed her temple. "Go take a shower." He whispered.

*******  
They stood around a peaceful meadow. Jax had an arm draped across Corrie's back, his hand on her hip. The other hand lay at his side. It was a beautiful day for a funeral. Jax looked at the crowd, taking in the faces that turned up to say goodbye to Piney. Thomas and Karina had brought Tara, who was having a tough time keeping it together. Men from other charters, men from other clubs. A lot of people had turned up to salute the old man. Jax had to hold in a huff when his eyes landed on Clay. Clay had dark sunglasses on and scratches on his face. Jax wondered if the scratches were the product of Piney fighting for his life. It didn't help matters that his mother hadn't showed up. The Queen should be present for events like this.  
When people had told their stories about Piney, Opie said a gentle "Goodbye, Pop" before spreading Piney's ashes in his favorite spot. The crowd broke up and started talking to each other. Corrie left Jax's side to embrace Opie.

"I love you," she said softly in his ear when he had her enveloped in a bear hug.

"Me too," he said.

"You need anything, you let me know." She said, giving him a watery smile as they broke apart.

*******  
"Where's Corrie?" Opie asked when Jax answered his knock. Jax had sat on the couch debating for hours on whether to tell Opie that Clay had killed Piney. Finally, he'd called his best-friend and asked him to come over to Jax's house for a sit down.

"Picking Abel up from Thomas'." Jax moved aside to let his best-friend enter his house.

"I know who did this." Opie said, sitting down at the dining room table.

Jax nodded solemnly. "Yeah." He pulled two beers out of the fridge before sitting down across from Opie.

"Found this at the cabin." Opie tossed the reaper pin on the table. "Noticed Clay was missing his today. He also looks pretty beat up."

"Ope-" Jax started.

"Don't try to talk me out of this." Opie snarled. "After Donna...now Piney? I can't walk away from this."

"I'm not asking you to." Jax said evenly. "Clay deserves everything he gets."

"Thought you'd want me to let shit play out; let the club handle it." Opie said taking a pull off his beer.

"Nah, man," Jax shook his head. "I called you over here to tell you Clay killed your old man." Jax mimicked Opie and took a pull off his own beer.

"What're you talking about?" Opie demanded.

"Corrie overheard Gemma and Unser talking in the office at TM. They were talking about cleaning up the scene so nobody would know it was Clay. Gemma found Piney, called Unser to clean up. Then she called Corrie to have her go up there and check on him so that Corrie would find the body." Jax said, shooting his best-friend a sarcastic smile.

"Jesus Christ." Opie growled.

Jax's chirping phone drew their attention. He was surprised to see it was his mother. "Yeah," he answered, his eyes locked on Opie.

"You should get to the Clubhouse." Gemma said quickly.

"What happened?" Jax demanded. Opie was already standing and getting ready to leave.

"Prospect was drivin' Corrie over to Thomas'. Somebody ran them off the road." Gemma said.

"Jesus. Are they okay?" Jax asked.

"Yeah. Corrie's pretty shaken up, though."

"We'll be right there." Jax said, slamming his phone closed. "Prospect and Corrie were in a car accident. They're at the Clubhouse."  
*******  
Jax walked through the Clubhouse doors, eager to make sure Corrie and his baby were okay. He caught sight of the prospect, V-Lin, sitting in a chair. He was getting a nasty gash in his head sewn up by Chibs. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the chapel doors close. Then his eyes landed on his battered mother.

"Jesus Christ, ma! What happened to you?" Jax demanded, taking her into his arms.

"It's nothing, Jackson. I pushed too hard." She said. She didn't want to tell her son that she'd confronted Clay about killing Piney. She also didn't want to mention that she'd fired a shot off at Clay before Clay got the gun from her and beat her bloody on their dining room floor. Jax could plainly see the damage that had been inflicted on his mother by his step-father. He didn't a literal blow-by-blow.

"Clay did this to you?" Jax asked, surprise registering on his face.

"I'm fine, baby. Really. Clay just pulled Corrie into chapel for a chat." Gemma said.

"A chat about what?" Jax asked angrily.

"I dunno." Gemma said. She watched as Jax and Opie sidled up to the closed chapel doors to listen to what was being said on the other side.

*******  
"You okay?" Clay asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Corrie shrugged. She was standing with her back to the chapel doors, Clay was seated at his usual spot.

"Can't be too careful out there. Especially now that you're carrying Jax's heir to the throne."

"We don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet." Corrie said. She was extremely uncomfortable being inside the chapel, especially with Clay.

"Glad that you'll be able to find out. It was a close call today." Clay said.

"Accidents happen." Corrie said.

"Yeah, they do." Clay agreed. "Could be another one happens. Maybe while you're alone."

"Are you threatening me?" Corrie demanded, anger bubbling to the surface.

"Nah," Clay shook his head. "I'm warnin ya."

"Warning me from what?" Corrie spat.

"The things you know. Could get the club into a lot of trouble if you told the wrong people."  
"I haven't told anybody anything! I would never rat on Jax, Opie, or anybody else out in that room." She pointed towards the Clubhouse.

"Oh, you feel a loyalty to them, do ya?" Clay challenged.

"More loyalty than you do!" Corrie shouted.

"What does that mean?" Clay shouted back.

"You're so fucking loyal that you killed Piney!" Corrie screamed. Clay was up from the table in an instant, coming towards her.

"You don't know what you're talking about. But you keep talkin that way, you and that baby ain't gonna make it much longer." He was right in her face when the chapel doors opened and he was confronted with two livid bikers glaring at him.

"Babe, you okay?" Jax asked, his eyes fixed on Clay.

Corrie nodded. "I'm fine."

"Tig," Jax called over his shoulder, "clear the Clubhouse."

"You got it." Tig said without thinking twice. He didn't care if they killed Clay or not. After what Clay had done to Gemma, Clay deserved everything he got.


	37. Chapter 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me so long to update. A lot of personal things that I won't bore you with. Hope to have this wrapped up by August 19.

It seemed like forever to Corrie until Jax and Opie came out of the Clubhouse into the parking lot. Jax wrapped his arms around his girlfriend and kissed her head.

"He won't ever threaten you again." Jax said. Corrie watched Opie climb onto his bike and leave the parking lot.

"What did you do?" She asked quietly, pulling away so she could look in his eyes.  
wq  
"Let's just say he won't hold a gavel ever again." He replied.

"Come on, baby, let me take you home." Tig said to Gemma. Gemma nodded as Tig slung an arm around her shoulders.

"How're you and the kid? Need to go get checked?" Jax asked Corrie after saying goodnight to his mother.

Corrie shook her head. "I'm fine. I just want to go home, take a warm shower, and watch tv with the kid."

*******  
Jax's phone woke him and Corrie up early the next morning. "What?" Jax groaned.

"We got a problem." Tig replied ominously.

 

"What?" Jax repeated.  
"Tommy stopped by to see your mom last night. Flipped his shit when he saw what Clay did." Tig answered.

"I know. Tommy called me. I told him it'd been taken care of." Jax yawned.

"Well, Clay and Tommy are missing." Tig announced.

"What do you mean missing?" Jax demanded, coming fully awake.

"I mean, Clay's not at the Clubhouse and Karina hasn't heard from Tommy since he went to visit your mom last night." Tig explained.

"Fuuuuuuuuck," Jax groaned.

"Welcome to your first day of being Pres...Pres." Tig chuckled before hanging up.

The thought slammed into Jax like a freight train. He was SAMCRO President now.

"You okay?" Corrie asked.

Jax nodded. "I'm president now."

"Why do you think I gave you a blowjob last night?" Corrie giggled.

"I thought you just liked it." Jax shrugged.

"Well, that too." She replied.

"I gotta go try to find Tommy and Clay. Apparently they're both missing." Jax said getting out of bed.

"That's not any good." Corrie said.

"No, it's not."

*******  
Three hours later, Corrie was standing around the emergency room waiting area. It was a quiet day, though nobody was going to say that lest they be jinxed. She'd informed her boss that she was pregnant, though he'd already been aware of that. She had to make it formal, though and fill out paperwork for a transfer. It was too dangerous for her to try to work in the ER. There were too many unstable people who came in that could hurt her or her baby. It wasn't worth the risk. She was sad but she reminded herself it was only for a couple of months.

An ambulance pulled in, followed by Eli Roosevelt. They were obviously in no hurry. The body on the gurney was bloody and the skin, what Corrie could see of it was gray.

"What's this?" Corrie asked.

"John Doe found dead on the side of the road. No wallet so we'll have to run prints." Eli said. "We just need somebody to declare him dead first."

"I'll do it." Corrie sighed. Dr. Anderson shot her a look. "He's dead, I don't think he's going to do any harm." She said. She waved the gurney into a trauma bay and looked at the body. "He's dead."

"Yeah, I figured." Eli smirked.

"He looks kind of familiar but he's been beaten so bad that I can't really tell." Corrie said from the foot of the bed.. She moved to the right side of the body and gasped.

"What?" Eli scowled, coming closer to where she stood. His face slackened when he saw what she was looking at. There on the upper right arm was a reaper tattoo.

"I have..." she trailed off, shock setting in. "I have to tell Gemma."

"We don't know for sure who this is. We're going to have to get fingerprints before we can confirm an identity." Eli said quietly, his hand resting on her shoulder. Corrie jerked away from him and ran to the sink where she emptied her stomach contents. She ran the water to get rid of the left over bile in the sink and washed her mouth out. "Do you need me to call anybody?" he asked keeping his voice low.

"No," Corrie shook her head. "You can't do anything official until the fingerprints come back. I'll let Gemma know."

"There's going to be questions." Eli stated.

Corrie nodded. "I know."

"Why was the president of SAMCRO found beaten to death in a ditch?" Eli asked her.  
"I don't know." Corrie said, her eyes wide and unfocused.

"Corrie," Eli placed his hands on her shoulders and forced her to look at him. "Take a deep breath. If there's anything you know..."

"No," Corrie smiled weakly, shook her head again and stopped when it made her nauseous. "I don't know anything."

"Okay," Eli nodded, not sure if he should trust her. "I'm going to accompany him down to the morgue."

"Yeah, I'll get Dr. Anderson to take you." Corrie said, leaving the room.

Once Dr. Anderson and Eli were out of the ER, Corrie found Karina working on charts. "Did Thomas ever turn up?"

"Yeah, he came home around three this morning. He turned his phone off because he wanted to sleep. He was really upset over what happened to his mom." Karina said.

"Clay's in the morgue." Corrie blurted.

"What?" Karina asked in disbelief.

"He was found on the side of the road beaten to death."

"Jesus." Karina gasped.

Corrie numbly walked into the doctor's lounge and pulled out her cell phone.

"Hey, babe." Jax answered on the third ring.

"Found Clay." Corrie said.

"Great! Where is he?" Jax exclaimed.

"The morgue." She said as tears pooled in her eyes.

"What's he doing there? Identifying somebody?" Jax asked, confused.

"Um, no, baby. Clay's in the morgue because he's-"

"Jesus Christ!" Jax yelled as just what she was saying sunk in.

"It's not official yet. They have to run his prints." Corrie said quietly.

"How?" Jax asked.

"Beaten to death." Corrie replied. "But they'll do an autopsy to confirm."

"Fuck." Jax bit out.

"I'm gonna cut out of here when Dr. Anderson gets back up here. You should probably meet me at your mom's house." Corrie said.

"Yeah, I'll head over there now." Jax said.

"See you in a bit." Corrie said before ending the call.

*******  
"Alright," Gemma snapped when Corrie walked through the door. "You gonna tell me what's going on here?" She sat in a dining room chair, her arms crossed, one leg crossed over the other, her foot tapping the air. The rest of the Sons were gathered around her; Jax and Thomas standing on either side of their mother.

"Clay was brought to St. Thomas by ambulance tonight." Corrie said. Her eyes traveled the crowd, wondering just what their reaction to the news would be.

"Why didn't you call me?" Gemma demanded.

"It's not officially him." Corrie said.

"What are you talking about?" Gemma asked.

Corrie's eyes settled on Thomas. "I knew it was him by his reaper tattoo." Corrie slid her eyes to Gemma. "I'm sorry, Gemma, but Clay's dead."

"What?" Gemma shrieked. "No! You're wrong!"

"I wish I was. There will be an autopsy and they're going to run his fingerprints. It'll be a day or two before they confirm it's him." Corrie said.

Gemma dissolved into tears. Thomas and Jax did their best to comfort her while the Sons all looked on in disbelief.

"What..." Tig swallowed hard before trying to continue, "what happened?"

"It looks like he was beaten to death." Corrie answered quietly. Tig nodded in response. Jax and Opie exchanged a glance, each communicating that they knew Thomas was behind this.  
"We're going to get revenge for this, Gem." Tig said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"We'll talk about it at Church tomorrow." Jax said.


	38. Chapter 38

"What's this?" Jax asked as he sat at the kitchen table drinking coffee while Abel ate breakfast. It had been three days since Clay had been found dead. Corrie came into the kitchen and slid a manila folder across the table to Jax.

"Clay's autopsy report. Figured you'd want to take it to Church." Corrie said quietly.

Jax nodded. "Thanks. You gotta work today?"

"Yeah," Corrie replied. "I start in my new department today."

"I get the feeling you aren't exactly happy about that." Jax said.

"They assigned me to neonatal." Corrie sighed.

"So...you'll be working with Tara?" Jax asked.

"Yeah but that's not the problem. I really don't like the administrator, Margaret Murphy. She keeps trying to stick her nose in our business and she's still steamed that I turned down Stockton on that job offer."

"Babe, Margaret Murphy can get-" he cut himself off, eyeing his young son at the kitchen table, "stuffed. She thinks it's her civic duty to save you from me."

"Well," Corrie smiled, sitting on his lap, "she's too late. There's no saving me now."

"When do we find out how long Abel's little brother has been baking?" Jax teased.

"We'll have to figure out a time to make an appointment." Corrie replied.

"Make it for whenever, Babe. I'll be there." Jax said. "I'll change my shit around if I have to."

"I'll set one up when I'm at work." She smiled at him.

"Jesus," Bobby shook his head after looking over Clay's autopsy report. "This was personal. They smashed his hands."

Jax shook his head. "That was me and Ope." The table went quiet, looking at their new President and VP for answers.

"I went up to the cabin after I found out that Pop was killed. I found Clay's gold reaper pin under the couch." Opie said.

"You...you think Clay killed Piney?" Tig asked.

Jax sighed. "Corrie heard Unser and Gemma talking in the office the day Corrie found Piney's body. Gemma had gone up to talk to Piney and found him dead. She had Unser clean up the scene so nobody would know that Clay had done it. Then, she called Corrie so Corrie would be the one to find the body."

There were murmurs around the table and head shakes. "But why would Clay kill him?" Juice asked.

"I don't know." Jax answered. "All I know is that Piney had something on Clay and Clay wanted to make sure that secret was kept."

"So...you smashed his hands?" Tig asked angrily.

"He's lucky that's all we did." Jax pushed out through clenched teeth. "He threatened Corrie and he beat the shit out of my mother."

"Right, he threatens your ol' lady, beats your mom, and then ends up dead." Tig threw out.

"Don't give me that bullshit." Jax replied. "Clay killed people outside of the Club's knowledge or approval for years. This wasn't us. We're not gonna go behind the Club's back to handle shit."

"Who else would kill Clay? Is there a beef we don't know about?" Bobby asked.

"I'm still going through Pop's stuff," Opie said. "Hopefully I'll find some answers."

"We'll find out who did this." Jax promised.

"You better." Tig glowered. He was a bit upset with Jax for naming Happy as Sergeant at Arms.

"The suspect list is long. It might take some time." Jax told everybody. "Until then, it's business as usual." He smacked down the gavel, calling an end to the meeting.

"Hey," Karina greeted Corrie in the neonatal unit. "Mail came for you at the ER."

"What is it?" Corrie asked taking the thick envelope from her friend.

Karina shrugged. "I don't open other people's mail. It's not ticking, though, I checked."

"Oh, thank you for that." Corrie gave Karina a sarcastic smile.

"Hey, you can never be too careful." Karina shrugged. "Gettin' all settled in?"

"Meh," Corrie replied. "It's not the ER but it will do for...however long I'm here."

"You still don't know how far along you are?"

"We have an appointment tomorrow for an ultrasound." Corrie said.

"We should totally just do one now. Get the waiting over with." Karina replied.

"Um...Jax isn't here. I don't want him to miss hearing the heartbeat and everything." Corrie said.

"I figured he'd be busy." Karina said.

"He said that he'd make time." Corrie smiled.

"Aaaaaaaw, I'm so happy to see you so happy." Karina wrapped an arm around her friend. "I guess I should get back to work."

Corrie waved as Karina turned to head back towards the ER. She ripped open the big manila envelope and noticed it was jammed full of paper. She clasped a handful and pulled them out. There was a handwritten note on top. She pulled it all the way out and gasped.

Hey darlin. Sorry I have to do this to you but I can't trust anybody else with these. You're a strong old lady and I know you will handle this the right way. These letters are why Clay killed me and he cannot know that you have them. Jax has to know the truth about what happened to his father. He needs to know that JT was murdered.

Take care of my boys.

Love,

Piney

Corrie pulled out the first letter and saw "My dearest Maureen," on the first line. Her head started spinning. Who was Maureen? Jax had said that JT was killed in an accident. She put the letters down on the counter and rubbed her forehead. With Clay dead, it had to be safe just turning this mess over to Jax...right?


	39. Chapter 39

"Hey," Gemma called as she entered Jax's house the next morning. "What'd the doctor say?"

"Six weeks," Corrie said from the couch. She was slumped down on the cushions.

"You don't sound very happy." Gemma said entering the living room and putting a hand to her hip.

"I can't stop throwing up." Corrie grumbled. "I got sent home from work because I can't get anything done. They're talking about me taking a leave of absence."

"What's Jax think?" Gemma asked.

"We're gonna talk about it when he gets home. He had to run to the Clubhouse right after our appointment." Corrie shrugged. "We got some shit to work out."

"Everything okay?" Gemma asked, worry coming over her face.

"Yeah, everything's fine. I haven't had time to really sit down and process everything with him since he got home at 3 this morning."

"What the hell was that jackass doing until 3 A.M.?" Gemma balked.

"He was clearing up some things with Thomas." Corrie shrugged. "He's been busy with club shit since he took over so he's having to stay out later."

"Being queen means sacrificing sometimes." Gemma sighed. "It ain't easy."

"Queen? Please! I'm hardly queen." Corrie scoffed. "You'll have that role until you die."

Gemma gave a half-smile. "I suppose you're right about that."

"What's the plan for Clay?" Corrie said grimly.

"Big funeral, all members from all charters that can show up will be there. Party afterwards to officially make Jax president." Gemma said.

"It just seems like too much trouble to go through considering what Clay did." Corrie replied.

Gemma let out a sigh. "It is but we have to keep up appearances. The other chapters don't know what he did. It would cast suspicion on SAMCRO if they didn't have a big funeral for him. A lot of what Clay did would cause a major problem if the other chapters found out."

"Well if I have to play heartbroken over Clay's death to make things easier for Jax, I will." Corrie sighed.

"You're a good ol lady." Gemma smiled. "I'm so glad Jax met you."

"Yeah, me too." Corrie smiled back.

"Hey, babe." Jax sighed as he came into the house later that day. "How you doin?" He dropped a kiss on her head as she sat on the couch in the living room.

"I'm tired but doing okay." She smiled at him. "You home for a bit?"

Jax nodded pulling off his cut. "I'm gonna throw my gun in the safe. Thomas got Abel?"

"Yeah, Thomas took him to the park. They were gonna spend the day together." Corrie replied.

"You think about what Dr. Anderson suggested earlier?" Jax called from the bedroom.

"I did a little but I want to talk to you before I decide." She called back.

"Babe," he said returning to the living room, "I told you to do whatever was best for you and our baby." He plopped down onto the couch next to her.

"I don't know if I can just sit around and do nothing for another seven and a half months." Corrie sighed.

Jax chuckled. "You'd be taking care of Abel. That's not doing nothing."

"I know but I don't know how I feel about freeloading-"

"You're not freeloading so get that shit out of your head right now." Jax said forcefully.

"I guess I don't have much of a choice if I can't get this puking thing under control."

"No, you really don't. I'm sorry this has been so hard on you." he kissed her forehead. "Take a week, see how it goes and if you feel better, you can go back to work."

Corrie nodded. "That's a good idea."

"I have them every once in awhile." Jax smirked. "I need to get to work."

"Hey-" She reached out and grabbed his hand as he got up to leave. "I need you to look at something real quick."

"Yeah." He sat back down.

Corrie pulled the manilla envelope out of a drawer in the coffee table. "This came for me at the hospital yesterday...it's from Piney."

"Piney?" Jax asked in surprise. "What are they?"

"They're letters. Piney said they were the reason Clay killed him and you needed to know the truth about what happened to your father."

"What do they say?"

Corrie shrugged. "I flipped through them, I didn't really read any of them. They're all to a woman named Maureen and they're from your dad."

"Maureen Ashby." Jax sighed. "One of the original members of the Sons was from Belfast, Ireland. He wanted to start a charter over there and my dad agreed. JT started spending more time there than he did here. When we went over to get Abel back, I found out that I have a half-sister named Trinity. JT started a second family with Maureen while my mom was back here shacking up with Clay. Then, Tommy got really sick and was in the hospital. My dad was in Ireland when it happened. Tommy technically died for a couple of minutes. It scared my old man that he was missing time with Tommy that he may not have. Tommy's heart could have given out at any time. He never went back to Ireland after that. Seven years later, JT was in the accident that killed him."

"So why would Clay kill Piney over some letters your father wrote to his mistress?" Corrie asked.

Jax shook his head. "Opie and I rebuilt my dad's bike. I could never prove it but we both knew somebody had fucked with JT's bike. There was only one mechanic he trusted to work on it. Not long after JT died, the mechanic disappeared. His body was found buried at a construction site a couple of years ago. He was with a couple of Mayans. Ope and I figured Clay was behind everything but we could never prove it so we had to keep our mouths shut."

"Now you have proof." Corrie said, rubbing his arm.

"I don't need proof. Clay's dead. Anything these letters say is only going to dredge up old shit that's best left in the past, especially for my mom." Jax shook his head again. "These are nothing but poison. I have to hit the lot for a bit before we make final arrangements for Clay. When I get home, we're burning these."

A/N: Another short chapter but I wanted to get it up since ya'll have been waiting so long. There are only two more chapters left in this story before I move on to the other story I wanted to write.


	40. The End

The funeral was a somber event. Corrie stood in between Jax and Opie while Gemma was flanked by Jax and Thomas. There was a large turnout as members from Charters all over the country came to mourn the old President of SAMCRO and to patch-in the new President. Corrie tried to look the "right" amount of sad instead of just put out. She was only there to show her support to Jax, Thomas, Gemma, and the other SAMCRO members. She didn't particularly feel sad that Clay was gone. She just felt tired and nauseous.

Story of my life, lately, she thought, rubbing her abdomen. Jax squeezed her other hand, as if he could read her thoughts. It wasn't lost on him that Corrie wanted to be elsewhere but she never voiced her dissatisfaction with being right where she was. She was doing what a good old lady would do and she hadn't needed to be told by his mother what was going to expected of her. Corrie just knew, instinctively, what she needed to do. Jax was thankful that it was her by his side. He needed a rock to help stabilize him in moving forward with this new path his life was taking.

"Thank you," he whispered into her ear.

Corrie smiled and whispered back, "No thanks needed."

Jax kissed her on the forehead. "Love you," he whispered.

She was about to tell him she loved him too when they were interrupted by bikers hugging Jax and expressing their condolences. Corrie didn't mind getting pushed to the side. It gave her a small break from having to put on a show.

The celebration was getting into full swing. Members from various charters were playing pool, giving each other a hard time, flirting with crow eaters, and having a good time. Corrie felt like a fish out of water. Being pregnant at a biker party made a woman feel left out. She couldn't partake in the drinking, obviously. It didn't help that all of the Redwood members of the Sons were locked away in the Chapel with the presidents from the other charters. Corrie knew it was just a formality and that Jax would be officially voted in as SAMCRO President but practically everybody she knew was behind those doors. Of course Gemma was flitting around playing Queen Bee.

So, I guess I just stand around and wait, Corrie thought. She knew it was part of the life-part of her life-but she was kind of lonely in a room full of people. Corrie wandered around, making small talk with other old ladies. A happy ruckus from behind the Chapel doors signaled the end of the vote and it signaled Jax was the new president. Corrie was going to make her way to the doors so she could congratulate Jax when he got but she slowed when she noticed Tig poke his head out of the doors and signal for Gemma. Tig handed Jax's cut to Gemma. Gemma walked towards her with a smile on her face.

"Here, honey," Gemma said, handing Corrie Jax's cut.

"What's this?" Corrie asked, confused.

"When he comes out, you're going to put his new, official, president cut on him." Gemma explained.

Corrie smiled at the matriarch. This was Jax's destiny. It was what he'd wanted his whole life and she was getting to be a part of it. She was excited for him and also a little bit scared. This is not where she'd pictured her life when she started working at as a volunteer at Stockton. But it was where she had ended up and she honestly couldn't be happier.

Jax came out of the Chapel doors, smiling with unhidden glee. The clubhouse erupted in shouts and applause. Corrie stepped forward, holding out Jax's cut for him to put on. He slipped his left arm into the cut and stepped behind him to let get to his right arm. He quickly pulled his cut on, turned around and kissed Corrie passionately. She wouldn't have minded being alone in that moment. His kiss turned on and she wanted him right there.

He cupped her face in his hands. "I love you."

"I love you too." She said, giving him a huge smile before he was pulled off into the crowd for more drinks and congratulations from members. Corrie caught Thomas' eye and she went over to talk to him.

"He's really happy," Thomas said smiling.

"Yeah, he is. It's everything he's always wanted." Corrie smiled both of them looking at the new SAMCRO President.

"Finally, it's all coming together for him." Thomas said.

"For both of you." Corrie nudged him with her shoulder. "Hey, can you do me a favor?"

"Absolutely." He replied.

"I rode here with Jax but I'm utterly exhausted. Wanna ditch the party and take me home?"

"Of course." He said.

Corrie went to tell Jax she was heading out. She assured him that he didn't need to leave his party for her, that she was going to go home and go right to bed.

Jax couldn't believe that it was already 2 am when he walked through his door. The house was dark and quiet, as he expected; as always, Corrie had left the hallway light on for him. He peeked into his bedroom and smiled. Corrie was asleep facing the door, one of Jax's shirts clutched in her hands. She told him that she liked to have something that smelled like him to help her fall asleep when he wasn't there.

Jax quietly checked on Abel. He was asleep with one hand in his hair and a thumb in his mouth. He checked the guest room, just in case, but found it empty. That didn't surprise him either. Of course Corrie would have insisted that Thomas go home instead of babysitting her. Jax had explained to Corrie that he felt better when somebody was there with her in case something were to happen.

Quietly undressing and slipping under the covers, he pulled Corrie against his chest. He hadn't felt so relaxed and so good in so long. Everything was falling into place. Now he could get the club onto the right track. And, if he didn't have to tell his brothers that his actual brother killed Clay, all the better.

"Hey, babe?" Jax called from the living room the next morning.

"Yeah?" Corrie answered from the kitchen.

"Where are those letters that Piney sent you?"

"They're in the drawer in the coffee table." Corrie said bringing him a cup of coffee.

"I looked in there. I couldn't find them." Jax said.

Thomas came bursting through the door, his face red in anger and tears streaming down his face. Karina was hot on his heels.

"Would you please talk to me?" Karina begged. Thomas slapped the envelope with the letters onto the table.

"What?" Jax asked in shock.

"Have you read these?" Thomas demanded.

"No! I haven't had time." Jax said. "I was just going to burn them. Who needs to read a bunch of love letters from Dad to his mistress?"

"She killed him, Jax!" Thomas yelled, fresh tears spilling down his face.

"What? Who?" Jax asked still confused.

"Mom! She and Clay killed Dad." Thomas said. "They set it up."

"N...no. Mom would never kill Dad." Jax shook his head.

"Yeah, well, she did. He knew that something was going to happen to him. He knew that Mom was sleeping with Clay and he predicted that he'd die in an accident." Thomas said. "She didn't deny it."

"You talked to Mom about this?" Jax asked.

"She said that she didn't participate in his death directly but she condoned it. She okayed it with Clay! She was fine with it!" Thomas seethed.

"Jesus," Jax said, sitting down in a kitchen chair.

"What do we do, Jax?" Thomas asked.

Months later...

"He's beautiful," Jax whispered as a tear slid down his cheek. Corrie had decided to quit working for St. Thomas when the nausea didn't go away. She was happy staying home and raising Abel.

"John Thomas." Corrie smiled at her newborn son.

"Thank you," Jax kissed her on the forehead. "For him, for being my wife, for raising Abel. Thank you for everything." Two weeks before Corrie went into labor, they'd had a wedding at the SAMCRO Clubhouse. It wasn't anything fancy, Corrie didn't even wear a dress.

"Poor kid has no grandparents to speak of." She whispered.

"But he has a shit load of uncles to look after him and a big brother." Jax replied.

After having a long talk with Thomas, the Teller boys had gone to visit their mother for one last time. They told her that if she wanted to live, that she'd leave Charming and never contact the Sons of Anarchy, Corrie, Thomas, or Karina again. Gemma had quietly sold her house and most of her belongings. Her and Wayne Unser had left Charming without a word. Rumor had it that they were living in Wayne's mobile-home about an hour north of Charming. Jax knew that Gemma was keeping up on what was going on in the Tellers' lives because Mary Winston never hesitated to tell him that his mother was miserable. The fact that the once queen of Charming had to resort to getting family news from a woman she loathed gave Jax great satisfaction.

The club and the Tellers lived out their lives in relative calm in Charming.

The End


End file.
